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XEbe Tllntverstti? ot Cbicago 

FOUNDED BY JOHN D, ROCKEFELLER 



DECIMUS JUNIUS BRUTUS ALBINUS 

A HISTORICAL STUDY 



A DISSERTATION 

SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND 

LITERATURE FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 

(department of LATIN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE) 



BY 

BERNARD CAMILLUS BONDURANT 




CHICAGO 

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS 

1907 



tlbe IHniverstti? ot Cbfcago 

FOUNDED BV JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER 



DECIMUS JUNIUS BRUTUS ALBINUS 

A HISTORICAL STUDY 



A DISSERTATION 

SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND 
LITERATURE FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 

(dEPARTMKNT of latin LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE) 



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BY 
BERNARD CAMILLUS BONDURANT 



CHICAGO 

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS 

1907 



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Copy EIGHT 1907 By 
The Univeesity of Chicago 



Published January, 1907 



Composed and Printed By 

The University of Chicago Press, 

Chicago, Illinois, U. S. A. 



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Carnegie Inst. 
.J130'07 



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PREFACE 

Since M. Paulus published his dissertation De Decimo lunio 
Bruto Albino commentatio historica (Miinster, 1889), much light 
has been thrown on the period in which Decimus Brutus lived and 
played his part by the researches of Ganter, Gardthausen, Groebe, 
Holzapfel, Krueger, Schelle, Schmidt, Schwartz, Sternkopf, and 
other scholars. Aided by the results of their labors, I have prepared 
from the sources a new treatment of the life of Decimus and its 
setting, in which, as it will be seen, my interpretation of his motives 
and conduct differs essentially from that of Paulus. 

To Professor Frank Frost Abbott, under whose supervision this 
investigation was carried on, I am indebted for kindly encourage- 
ment and patient criticism. My thanks are also due to Dr. Edward 
A. Bechtel, of the University of Chicago, and Dr. Tenney Frank, 
of Bryn Mawr College, who read my manuscript and made many 
helpful suggestions for its improvement. 

B. C. B. 

Tallahassee, Fla. 



Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2010 with funding from 
The Library of Congress 



http://www.archive.org/details/decimusjuniusbruOObond 



SUMMARY OF CONTENTS 



The Career of Decimus Brutus to the Year 45 b. c p. 17 

Date of Decimus' birth probably 85 — His father, grandfather, and great-grand- 
father, the consuls of 77, 138, and 178 respectively — Loyalty of his great-grand- 
father, M. lunius Brutus, to the Optimate party — His services to the state — 
Opposition of Decimus' grandfather, Decimus Brutus Gallaecus, to democratic 
measures — His military achievements — Part in the murder of the adherents of 
Gains Gracchus — Father of Decimus, Decimus lunius Brutus, one of those who 
took up arms in 100 B. c. against the democratic leaders, Saturninus and Glaucia 
— A leader of the nohilitas and opposed to the democratic sedition of Lepidus — 
Victim of Verres' greed — Scholar and pleader — Sempronia, mother of Decimus 
Brutus, involved in the conspiracy of CatiUne — Different from her husband in 
character and antecedents — Sallust's characterization of her unjust — Decimus 
adopted into the gens Postumia whose ancestors had prevented the return of the 
Tarquins to Rome — His adoptive father probably not the Aulus Postumius 
Albinus who was consul in 99 — He takes service under Caesar in Gaul owing to 
his desire for military preferment — Commander of Caesar's fleet in the war with 
the Veneti — His brilliant victory in the Bay of Quiberon prepares the way for 
Caesar's invasion of Britain — In 52 Decimus accompanies Caesar across the 
Cevennes Mountains into the country of the Arverni — Later he probably leads 
Caesar's recruits to Agedincum — Thence he marches vrith Labienus to join 
Caesar and takes part in the siege of Alesia — He returns to Rome in 50 and marries 
Paula Valeria, soror Triari — In the Civil War Decimus, on personal grounds, 
sides with Caesar — The Civil War begins — Caesar seizes by violence the funds of 
the state — Decimus Brutus placed in charge of the fleet for the siege of Massilia 
— His first naval victory over the Massihots of great advantage to Caesar — In a 
second battle he overwhelmingly defeats the Massiliots and closes the sea to them 
— Placed in command of Massilia, and made governor of Transalpine Gaul for 
48, in which position he continues until 45 — Suppresses revolt of the Bellovaci in 46. 

II 

Decimus' Part in the Assassination of Caesar P- 36 

Decimus returns from Gaul in the train of Caesar in 45 — Is honored by the dictator 
and named as one of his substitute heirs — Mistakes of the Greek writers in regard 
to Caesar's will — Decimus is made praetor by Caesar in the latter part of 45, 
named governor of Cisalpine Gaul for 44, and designated consul for 42 — These 
honors deserved by Decimus — In politics he was an Optimate by inheritance, 
adoption, and environment — His life hitherto a military one and removed from 
the pohtical strife at Rome — His part in the Civil War no indication of his pohtical 
convictions — Probably cherished along with others the hope that Caesar would 
restore the free repubUc — Caesar's disregard of republican institutions arouses 

5 



6 DECIMUS JUNIUS BRUTUS ALBINUS 

hostility, as is seen in the letters of Cicero — Cicero hints that Caesar should be 
disposed of — Decimus obscrs'es discontent at Rome — Extravagant flattery of 
Caesar by the senate — Caesar obtains full control of the machinery of government 
— His statue borne in the ponipa circensis along with the images of the gods — He 
resents the conduct of Pontius Acjuila — Makes promiscuous additions to the mem- 
bership of the senate — The senate decrees to him a golden statue on the rostra — 
People refuse to acknowledge Fabius Maximus as consul — Caninius Rebilus — 
Caesar's lack of wisdom and of self-restraint in his utterances — Additional honors 
— Caesar punishes two tribunes of the people — Senate votes him further honors — 
Affair of the Lupercalia — At the consular election votes are cast for the two tribunes 
whom Caesar had deprived of office — Deification of Caesar — Helvius Cinna 
\ drafts a motion that Caesar may marry whomsoever he chooses — Caesar insults 
' the senate — Responsibility for the extravagant honors that made Caesar an object 
of hatred not to be laid upon those who afterward effected his death — Origin of 
the conspiracy against Caesar — His unpopularity caused by the suspicion that he 
was ambitious to be king — Assassination and mob violence in certain cases justi- 
fied by the Romans — Historical precedents — Considerations that prompted 
Decimus Brutus to take part in the conspiracy — Political and social influences — 
Example of his ancestors — His motive not a selfish one — Time and place for the 
assassination decided on — Decimus present at a state dinner in honor of Caesar 
on evening before the Ides of March — Urges Caesar to attend meeting of the 
senate — Leads him into the curia, but is not present at the assassination — Caesar's 
friends in the senate make no attempt to defend him — Flight of the senators and 
people — Conspirators not alone responsible for the death of Caesar — They pro- . 
ceed to the Forum and thence to the Capitol — Their progress not a flight — Con- ^ 
duct of Cinna — Dolabella assumes the consulship — Conspirators summoned 
from the Capitol — Speeches of Brutus and Cassius — They return to the Capitol 
and deliberate with friends, who visit them, on a plan of action — Peace commission 
sent to Antonius and Lepidus, who delay their reply — Their fears — Decimus 
Brutus leaves his confederates on the evening of the 15 th and goes out into the city 
to use his influence with the Caesarians and to observe the mood of the people — 
Lepidus occupies the Forum — Antonius refers the conspirators to the senate — 
Attitude of the various parties in the city — Conference of the Caesarians — Mihtary 
display of Antonius and Lepidus causes a reaction against the conspirators — 
Failure of the conspirators to form a plan of action beforehand is proof that they 
were not prompted by ambition — Purposes of Antonius — Letter of Decimus 
Brutus to Marcus Brutus and Cassius — Meeting of the senate in the Temple of 
Tellus — Amnesty — Validity of Caesar's acts confirmed — Reconciliation — Will of 
Caesar — Public funeral — Oration of Antonius and fury of the populace. 

Ill 

Decimtts' Administration of Cisalpine Gaul and the War with Antonius. . . p. 71 
Decimus Brutus leaves Rome for his province during the period of quiet that fol- 
lowed the funeral of Caesar — Complaints of Marcus Brutus and Cassius against 
Decimus unjust — Antonius secures by violence the adoption of a lex giving him 
both Gauls for six years, including the year 44, and also obtains control of the 
Macedonian legions — Decimus Brutus wages war with the Inalpini, secures the 



SUMMARY OF CONTENTS 7 

loyalty of his troops, and is saluted as imperator, which title he wishes the senate 
to confirm — Cicero's reply to the letter of Brutus — Decimus encamps at Mutina 
in September — Friends of Antonius falsely accuse him of having hired a slave to 
assassinate the consul — Departure of Antonius for Brundisium — Activity of 
Octavianus — He sends emissaries to win over the Macedonian legions from 
Antonius — Consults Cicero and on his advice leads his army to Rome — Speaks 
against Antonius — Establishes his headquarters at Arretium — Antonius returns to 
Rome vidth soldiers— Holds a contio at Tibur — Meeting of the senate, November 
28 — Martian and fourth legions desert to Octavianus, and Antonius hastily leaves 
Rome for Cisalpine Gaul — Strength of his army — Cicero and other senators write 
Decimus Brutus to hold his province against Antonius — Decimus asks for authori- 
zation of the senate — Cicero urges Decimus not to wait for the senate to act — 
Decimus' resistance to Antonius a counter-revolution — He issues an edict against 
Antonius — Senate, on December 20, approves the conduct of Decimus in holding 
his province against Antonius — Cicero's fourth Philippic and letter to Decimus — 
Decimus prepares to resist Antonius at Mutina — Antonius begins the siege of the 
town — Meeting of the senate, January i — Cicero opposes the sending of peace 
commissioners to Antonius, but urges that a tumuUus be decreed and the senatus 
consuUum ultimum be adopted — Various other motions — Senate refuses to decree 
a tumultus or to pass the senatus consuUum ultimum, but adopts the other pro- 
posals of Cicero in favor of Decimus Brutus, the young Caesar, Lepidus, and the 
veterans — Senate sends peace commissioners to Antonius and threatens war in 
case he refuses to accede to its commands — Hirtius leaves Rome to take command 
against Antonius — Letter of Cicero to Decimus Brutus — Seventh PhiKppic — 
Embassy to Antonius fails to accomplish its purpose — Antonius' counter-pro- 
posals — Tumultus and senatus consuUum ultimum — Lepidus and Plancus sum- 
moned to Italy — Cicero's report of the miUtary situation in the beginning of Feb- 
ruary too optimistic — Operations of Titus Munatius Plancus and activity of 
Decimus Brutus — Because of his anxiety for safety of Decimus, Cicero in the 
beginning of March agrees to become a member of a second peace embassy to 
Antonius, but afterward changes his mind, and in the tweKth Philippic shows 
the foUy of another embassy — Antonius endeavors to arrange terms vsdth Hirtius 
and Caesar — Their reply — Letter of Antonius — Hirtius and Caesar advance to 
within a few miles of Mutina, make known their presence to Decimus, and send 
him provisions — Desperate situation of Decimus — Delay of the consuls in going 
to his relief — His heroic persistence — Pansa leaves Rome with new levies — 
Battle of Forum Gallorum — Serious state of affairs at Rome before news of the 
victory comes — Decrees of the senate in honor of the consuls and Octavianus — 
Appian's report of the battle of Mutina — Criticism of Dio's account — Part of 
Decimus Brutus in the battle — Decimus urges Caesar to intercept Ventidius — 
Pursmt of Antonius is necessarily delayed — Decimus rests his men at Regium 
Lepidi — News from Mutina reaches Rome — Decrees of the senate not unjust to 
young Caesar — Plans of Decimus — He fears Lepidus — Continues his pursuit of 
Antonius — Underestimates the strength of the latter — Antonius, en route to join 
Lepidus, attempts to obstruct Decimus on his way to unite with Plancus — Deci- 
mus anticipates the cavalry of Antonius and occupies PoUentia — Movements of 
Plancus — He makes an agreement to co-operate vnth. Lepidus in resisting Antonius 
— Marches to join Lepidus — Marcus Antonius arrives at Forum luli. May 15 — 



DECIMUS JUNIUS BRUTUS ALBINUS 

Lepidus arrives at Forum Voconi — His loyalty to the republic called in question 
— Complaints at Rome against Decimus Brutus — Decimus has apprehensions in 
regard to the young Caesar — He learns of the concert of Plancus and Lepidus 
against Antonius — His delay in crossing the Alps occasioned by alarming rumors 
of the designs of Caesar — Decimus receives reassuring news from Rome — Cicero 
urges him to end the war with Antonius — Treachery of Lepidus and retreat of 
Plancus — Decimus leaves Eporedia — His route across the Alps — Writes a gloomy 
letter to Cicero on the receipt of the news about Lepidus — Unites with Plancus 
— Their plans — Lepidus declared a hostis — Reasons for the inactivity of Decimus 
and Plancus — They call for reinforcements — Caesar obtains the consulship — 
Condemnation of the liberatores — Plancus deserts Decimus and joins Antonius 
— Flight and death of Decimus Brutus — Criticism of the account of his death in 
Valerius Maximus. 



DATES OF IMPORTANT EVENTS CONNECTED WITH THE 

CAREER OF DECIMUS BRUTUS AFTER 

THE DEATH OF CAESAR 

44 B. C. 
March 15 — 

1. Caesar is assassinated between 11 A. M. and 12 M., and the liheratores proceed 
to the Forum, hold a contio, and then go up to the Capitol pp. 56 ff. 

2. Slaves bear Caesar's body through the Forum to his house P- 59 

3. Cinna appears in the Forum and lays aside the insignia of the praetor. . .p. 59 

4. Dolabella assumes the consulship pp. 59 f . 

5. M. Brutus and Cassius are summoned from the Capitol, address the people 
in the Forum, and then return to the Capitol pp. 60 f. 

6. Dolabella, Cicero, and other prominent men go up to the Capitol in the evening 
and consult with the liheratores p. 61 

7. The liheratores send certain consulares to Antonius and Lepidus to arrange 
terms of peace. Antonius and Lepidus defer their answer to the next day . . 

8. Decimus Brutus leaves his confederates on the Capitol and goes down into 
the city pp. 62 ff . 

March 16 — 

1. Before daylight Lepidus occupies the Forum with troops and at dawn holds a 
contio ■ P- 64 

2. Antonius gives his reply to the representatives of the liheratores P- 64 

3. Many flock to the standards of Antonius and Lepidus, who are in arms. Mes- 
sengers summon the veterans of Caesar settled in the towns near Rome to join 
the consul and the magister equitum pp. 65 f. 

4. Conference of the Caesarians late in the afternoon pp. 65 f. 

5. Antonius summons the senate for the 17th and takes measures to preserve order 
in the city during the night of the i6th-i7th, App. ii. 125 pp. 65 f, 68 

6. Conference of Decimus Brutus with Hirtius in the evening. Decimus demands 
for himself and confederates a legatio libera pp. 62 f. 

March 17 — 

1. At daylight the senate assembles in the Temple of Tellus p. 68 

2. Decimus Brutus writes Fam. xi, i. 1-5. After a second interview with Hirtius 
he -writes Fam, xi. i. 6 and dispatches the whole letter probably before 
9 A. M pp. 62 f, 68 

3. Marcus Brutus addresses the people and the veterans on the Capitol and declares 
that the liheratores did not intend to invalidate the acts of Caesar P- 69 

4. Senatus consuUa passed, conferring amnesty, confirming the acts of Caesar, 
and especially ratifying Caesar's grants of land to the veterans P- 69 

5. The S. C. confirming Caesar's acts made a lex by vote of the people. . . .p. 69 

6. PubHc reconciliation effected between the liheratores and the consuls .... p. 69 
March 18 — Senate decrees that Caesar's will be published and that he be given a state 

funeral pp. 69 f. 

9 



lO DECIMUS JUNIUS BRUTUS ALBINUS 

44 B. C. 

March 20 or 21 — Burial of Caesar. Laudatio funebris of Antonius P- 79 

April 8 {about) — Decimus Brutus leaves Rome for his province -P- 71 

April 13 — Execution of the Pseudo-Marius P- 71 

June (beginning) — The lex tribunicia de provinciis consularibus and the lex de per- 
mutatione provinciarum give Antonius the two Gauls for six years, including the 

year 44. Antonius also secures control of the Macedonian legions pp. 72 f, 

June 8 — At a conference with Cicero at Antium, M. Brutus and Cassius find fault 

with the inactivity of Decimus Brutus pp. 71 f. 

June, July, and August — Decimus Brutus wages war with the Inalpini p. 73 

September — Decimus Brutus encamped at Mutina, writes Fam. xi. 4 requesting con- 
firmation of his title of imperator P- 73 

End of September or beginning 0} October — Cicero^ answers in Fam. xi. 6. i P- 74 

October 9 — Antonius^ leaves Rome for Brundisium to meet the four Macedonian 

legions P- 74 

October {middle) — Cicero leaves Rome P- 74 

October g-November 5 — Octavianus collects an army of veterans in Campania and 

seeks advice from Cicero pp. 74 f . 

November 9 — Octavianus holds a contio at Rome against Antonius p. 75 

November (middle) — Antonius returns to Rome and calls a meeting of the senate for 
November 24 pp. 7 c f. 

November 24 — Antonius does not attend the meeting of the senate and adjourns it 
until November 28 P- 76 

Between November 24 and November 28 — Contio of Antonius at Tibur p. 76 

November 28 — Meeting of the senate. Antonius learns of the desertion of the fourth 
legion. Hasty distribution of the praetorian provinces. Antonius leaves the 
city by night and leads his army to Cisalpine Gaul P- 76 

December 9 — Cicero returns to Rome and in Fam. xi. 5 urges Decimus Brutus to hold 
his province against Antonius P- 76 

December 12 ( ?) — Cicero replies in Fam. xi. 7 to a lost letter of Decimus in which he 
had asked for a decree of the senate authorizing him to hold Cisalpine 
Gaul P- 77 

December 15 — Decimus Brutus issues an edict refusing to surrender his province to 
Antonius P- 78 

'Cicero returned to Rome August 31 (Faw. xii. 25. 3). In the senate on September i Antonius 
threatened to pull Cicero's house down upon his head because Cicero did not attend the meeting {Phil, i . 
12, V. 19). On September 2 Cicero delivered Philippic i against Antonius who was absent {Phil. i. 16, 
V. 19; Fam. xii. 2. i, 25. 3). Between September 2 and 19 Antonius spent several days at the villa of 
MeteUus at Tibur {Fam. xii. 2. 1; Phil. v. 19. 20). On September 19 Antonius harangued the senate 
against Cicero who, together with other prominent leaders, was absent owing to fear of violence from the 
armed men whom the consul had stationed about the building {Fam. x. 2. i, xii. 2. 1, 3; Phil. ii. 112, v. 
20). It was probably not until October 25 that Cicero began to circulate privately his reply {Philippic ii) 
to Antonius' tirade against him {AH. xv. 13. i). 

' In the beginning of October (before the 6th) Antonius erected a statue to Caesar on the Rostra 
(Fam. xii. 3. i). On October 2 he indicated to the people his intention to avenge the death of Caesar {Fam. 
xii. 3. 2., 23. 3; Veil. ii. 64. 3). About October s or 6 assassins who had been hired by Octavianus made 
an unsuccessful attempt on the life of Antonius {Fam. xii. 23. 2). 



DATES OF IMPORTANT EVENTS II 

44 B. c. 

December 20 — Edict of Decimus Brutus published at Rome. The senate meets. 
Cicero deKvers Philippic iii. The senate authorizes Decimus and the other 
governors to continue to hold their provinces until successors had been appointed. 
Cicero delivers Philippic iv to the people. Writes Fam. xi. 6. 2, 3 . . . .pp. 78 f. 

December 20 ( ?) — Antonius begins the siege of Mutina pp. 78, 80 

43 B. c. 
January i — Meeting of the senate. Peace embass)' to Antonius proposed. Cicero 
dehvers Philippic v pp. 80 f. 

January 3 — Senate praises Decimus Brutus, votes a statue to Lepidus, decrees honors 

to Octavianus, and rewards to the soldiers who had deserted Antonius. .pp. 80 f. 
January 4 — Senate decrees an embassy to Antonius. Philippic vi delivered to the 

people pp. 81 f. 

January 5 — Ambassadors to Antonius set out from Rome p. 82 

Soon after January 5 — Hirtius leaves with a small force for Cisalpine Gaul p. 82 

January 24— Cicero writes Fam. xi. 8 pp. 82 f . 

End of January — Cicero delivers Philippic vii P- 83 

February i — Ambassadors return with counter-proposals from Antonius P- 83 

February 2 — TumuUus decreed, the senatus consuUum ultimum probably passed, and 

Lepidus and Plancus summoned to Italy P- 84 

February 3 — Philippic viii. Decree that soldiers who leave Antonius by March i 

be pardoned. Dispatch from Hirtius read in the senate P- 84 

February 4 — Saga is assumed P- 84 

February {beginning) — Cicero dehvers Philippic ix in eulogy of Servius Sulpicius, 

and, a few days later, Philippic x pp. 83, 85 

February {end) — Titus Plancus forced out of Pollentia p. 85 

March {beginning) — Ventidius Bassus arrives at Ancona P- 85 

March 5 ( ?) — Philippic xi P- 85 

March 6 ( ?) — New embassy to Antonius voted p. 86 

March 7 ( ?) — Philippic xii pp. 85 f. 

March 19 — Pansa leaves Rome with new levies p. 88 

March 20 — Philippic xiii: Comment on the letter of Antonius to Hirtius and 

Caesar p. 86 

March {latter half) — Hirtius and Caesar advance to the river Scultenna near 

Mutina p. 86. 

March {end) — Decimus Brutus in desperate straits owing to lack of provisions . . p. 87 

April 14 — Battle of Forum Gallorum pp. 88 . 

April 18 — Rumors in Rome of a victory of Antonius. His partisans create 
disorder P- 89 

April 20 — Counter-demonstration in favor of Cicero. News of the victory of the 
republican generals P- 89 

April 21 — Philippic xiv. Supplicationes of fifty days in favor of the consuls and 
Octavianus P- 89 



12 DECIMUS JUNIUS BRUTUS ALBINUS 

43 B. C. 

April 21 — Battle of Mutina pp. 89 ff. 

April 22 — Antonius raises the siege of Mutina and begins his march toward the Alps. 

Decimus Brutus has an interview with Caesar P- 93 

April 23 — Decimus Brutus on his way to Bononia learns of the death of Pansa and 

returns to Mutina P- 93 

April 24 — Decimus starts in pursuit of Antonius P- 94 

April 26 — Decimus arrives at Regium Lepidi P- 94 

April 26 — Plancus crosses the Rhone to march into Italy P- 99 

April 26 — News of the battle of Mutina reaches Rome. Senate declares Antonius a 

hosiis. Honors to Decimus Brutus, the dead consuls, and Octavianus. ... p. 94 

April 27 — News of the release of Decimus Brutus from Mutina reaches Rome. 

Motion made by Cicero that Decimus' name be honored in the calendar is lost. 

Decimus intrusted with the army of the consuls and the conduct of the war 

with Antonius pp. 94 f . 

April 29 — Decimus writes Fam. xi. 9; leaves Regium Lepidi P- 96 

April 30 — Decimus at Parma; Fam. xi. 13a. 

May 3 — Antonius and Ventidius unite at Vada P- 95 

May 5 — Decimus arrives at Dertona, learns of the union of Antonius with Ventidius, 

and writes Fam. xi. 10 pp. 95 f . 

May 6 — Decimus in the country of the Statiellenses secures memoranda of Antonius 

which show that his plan is to unite with Lepidus; writes Fam. xi. 11 P- 97 

May 8 or 9 — L. Antonius arrives at Forum luli in the province of Lepidus P- 99 

May II ( ?) — Decimus Brutus prevents the cavalry of Antonius from seizing Pollen- 

tia. Writes Fam. xi. 13. 1-4 P- 98 

May 12 — Plancus crosses the Isere on his march to join Lepidus p. 99 

May 15 — M. Antonius arrives at Forum luli pp. 99 f. 

May 15 — Decimus learns from Plancus that Lepidus will not receive Antonius. p. 102 
May 17 ( ?) — Cicero writes Fam. xi. 12. Disappointment at Rome that Antonius 

has not been crushed pp. loi f 

May 18 — Lepidus arrives at the Argenteus, twenty-four miles from Forum luli, where 

Antonius was encamped p. 101 

May 19 — Cicero writes Fam. xi. 18 to quiet the apprehensions of Decimus in regard 

to Octavianus p. 102 

May 21 — Decimus Brutus, at Vercellae, sends a dispatch to the senate, and writes 

Fam. xi. 19 p. 103 

May 24 — Decimus has reached Eporedia. He writes Cicero in Fam. xi. 20 concerning 

the complaints of Octavianus and the veterans pp. 103 f. 

May 25 — Decimus writes from Eporedia Fam. xi. 23; trusts in the loyalty of Lepidus 
and Plancus; is apprehensive of the young Caesar; will not leave Italy until he 

hears from Cicero p. 104 

About May 27 — Decimus leaves Eporedia and proceeds toward the Alps p. 106 

May 29 — Antonius and his troops received into camp of Lepidus. Antonius marches 
against Plancus who retreats toward the Isere p. 105 



DATES OF IMPORTANT EVENTS I3 

43 B. C. 
jl/aj, go — Lepidus endeavors to explain his treachery in a dispatch to the senate, and 

follows Antonius P- ^°5 

June 3 — Decimus, on the march, learns of the treachery of Lepidus. Demands rein- 
forcements from the senate in Fam. xi. 26 p. 106 

June 4 — Cicero writes Fam. xi. 21 in reply to Fam. xi. 20 pp. 104 f. 

June 4 — Plancus recrosses the Isere P- i°5 

June 6 — Cicero writes Fam. xi. 24 in reply to Fam. xi. 23 p. 105 

June 8 {prohably)— Decimus Brutus arrives at Cularo. He and Plancus send a joint 

dispatch to the senate. Fam. xi. 13b p. 105 f 

June 18 — Cicero writes Fam. xi. 25 in reply to Fam. xi. 26. 

June 25 — Cicero writes Fam. xi. 15 on the receipt of the news of the union of De cimus 

and Plancus P- io7 

June 30 — Lepidus declared a hostis by the senate p- 107 

July 6 — Ciceros commends Appius Claudius to Decimus Brutus in Fam. xi. 22. 

July 28 — Plancus explains the inactivity of himself and Decimus p. 107 

August 19 — Octavianus and Q. Pedius chosen consuls p. 108 

A little after August 19. — Trial and condemnation of the liberatores p. 108 

August (end) — Plancus deserts Decimus and joins Antonius. FKght of 

Decimus p. 108 

September (middle) — Decimus Brutus slain by order of Antonius pp. 109 f. 

3 The two remaining letters of commendation {Fam. xi. 16, 17) that Cicero wrote to Decimus have 
not been dated. They belong probably to May or June and concern the candidacy of L. Lamia for the 
praetorship. 



SELECTED LIST OF BOOKS, ARTICLES, AND 
DISSERTATIONS 

d'Addozio, v. De M. Bruti vita et studiis doctrinae (Naples, 1895). 

Becher, F. De Ciceronis quae feruntur ad Brutum Epistulis scripsit (Harburg, 

1876). 
"iJber die Sprache der Briefe ad Brutum," Rheinisches Museum jiir Phi- 

lologie, 1882. 
"Die sprachliche Eigenart der Briefe ad Brutum," Philologus, 1885, p. 471. 



BoDEWiG, R. De proeliis apud Mutinam commissis (Dissertation, Barmen, 1S86). 

BoiSSlER, G. Cicero and His Friends (translated by Jones; New York, 1897). 

Beuggemann, F. De Marci Aem. Lepidi vita et rebus gestis (Dissertation, Miinster, 
1887). 

Bynxtm, E. Das Leben des M. Junius Brutus bis auf Caesars Ermordung (Disserta- 
tion, Halle, 1897). 

Caxter, F. Ciceros politisches Denken (Berlin, 1903). 

COBET, C. G. "Ad epistolas Ciceronis et Bruti," Mnemosyne, Vol. VII, 1879. 

Frohlich, F. De rebus inde a Caesare occiso usque ad senatum liberalibus habitum 
gestis (Dissertation, Berlin, 1892). 

Ganter, L. " Chronologische Untersuchungen zu Ciceros Philippischen Reden," 
Jahrbuch fiir Philologie, 1894. 

Gardthausen, V. Augustus und seine Zeit, I. i and II. i (Leipzig, 1891). 

Groebe, p. De legibus et senatus consultis anni 710 quaestiones chronologicae 
(Dissertation, Berlin, 1893). 

Drumann, Geschichte Roms, Zweite Auflage, I, Anhang (Berlin, 1899). 

GURLITT, L. " Briefwechsel zwischen Cicero und Decimus Brutus," Jahrbuch fiir 

Philologie, 1880. 

"Die Briefe Ciceros ad M. Brutum auf ihre Echtheit gepriift," Philologus, 

Supplementsband IV, 1883. 

"Drei Suasoriae in Briefform," Philologus, Supplementsband V, 1889. 

"Archetypus der Brutusbriefe," Jahrbuch fiir Philologie, 1885 and 1892. 

Hagen, M. von. Quaestiones criticae de bello Mutinensi (Marburg, 1887). 
HiNZ, C. Zur Beurteilung Appians und Plutarchs in der Darstellung der Ereignisse 

von der Ermordung Caesars bis zum Tode des M. Brutus (Jena, 1891). 

Holzapfel, L. "Zur Geschichte des Mutinensischen Krieges," Jahrbuch fiir Phi- 
lologie, 1894. 

JuLLiEN, E. De L. Cornelio Balbo Maiore (Dissertation, Paris, 1886). 

Le fondateur de Lyon: Histoire de L. Munatius Plancus (Paris, 1892). 

Krause, p. Appian als Quelle fiir die Zeit von der Verschworung gegen Caesar bis 

zum Tode des Decimus Brutus (Programme, Rastenburg, 1880). 

14 



SELECTED LIST OF BOOKS AND ARTICLES 1 5 

Keueger. De rebus inde a bello Hispaniensi usque ad Caesaris necem gestis (Bonn, 

1895). 
Lange, L. Romische Alterthiimer, Vols. II, III (Berlin, 1879). 
Melber, J. "Der Bericht des Dio Cassius iiber die Seeschlacht des D. Brutus gegen 

die Veneter," Commentationes Woelfflinianae (Leipzig, 1891). 
Meyer, P, Untersuchung iiber die Frage der Echtheit des Briefwechsels Cicero ad 

Brutum (Stuttgart, 1881). 

Mullemeister, p. Bemerkungen zur Streitfrage iiber die Echtheit der Brutus- 
brief e, I. 16 and 17 (Programme, Emmerich, 1897). 

Mueller, R. De rebus inde a Caesaris nece usque ad funus Romae gestis (Mon- 
asterii, 1884). 

Nake, B. "Der Briefwechsel zwischen Cicero und Decimus Brutus," Jahrbuch fiir 

Philologie, 1875-76, Supplementsband VIII. 
Oman, C. Seven Roman Statesmen (London, 1902). 

Paulus, M. De Decimo lunio Bruto Albino commentatio historica (Munster, 1889). 
Peter, H. Die Quellen Plutarchs in den Biographieen der Romer (Halle, 1865). 
RiBBECK. Senatores Romani qui fuerint Idibus Martiis anni A. U. C. 710 (Berlin 

1899). 

RisSE, K. De gestis Sexti Pompei (Dissertation, Miinster, 1882). 
RxjEtE, E. Die Correspondenz Ciceros in den Jahren 44 und 43 (Marburg, 1883). 
ScHELLE, E. Beitrage zur Geschichte des Todeskampfes der romischen Republik 
(Dresden, 189 1). 



Der neueste Angriff auf die Echtheit der Briefe ad M. Brutum (Dresden, 

1897). 

SCHiRMER, K. Uber die Sprache des M. Brutus (Metz, 1884). 
Schmidt, O. E. De epistulis et a Cassio et ad Cassium post Caesarem occisum datis 
(Leipzig, 1877). 

Die letzten Kampfe der romischen Republik (Leipzig, 1884). 

"Zur Chronologie der Correspondenz Ciceros seit Caesars Tode," Jahrbuch 

jilr Philologie, 1884. 

"M. lunius Bratus, " Verhandlungen der Gorliizer Philologenversatnmlung, 



"M. Tullii Ciceronis epistularum ad M. Brutum Hber I," Philologus, 1890. 

"Beitrage zur Kritik der Briefe Ciceros an M. Brutus und zur Geschichte 

des Mutinensischen Krieges," Jahrbuch fur Philologie, 1890. 

"Ventidius Bassus," Philologus, 1892. 

Der Briefwechsel des M. Tullius Cicero (Leipzig, 1893). 

Schmidt, O. E. "Der Tag der Schlacht von Mutina," Jahrbuch fur Philologie, 
1892. 

"Studien zur Ciceros Briefen an Atticus," Rheinisches Museum fiir Philo- 
logie, 1900. 

Shuckburg, E. S. Augustus: Life and Times of the Founder of the Roman Empire 
(London, 1903). 



l6 DECIMUS JUNIUS BRUTUS ALBINUS 

Schwartz, E. "Die Verteilung der romischen Provinzen nach Caesars Tod," Her- 



"Appianus," Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Encyclopaedie, Vol. II. 

"Cassius Dio Cocceianus," Pauly-Wissowa, Vol. III. 

Seeck, O. Kaiser Augustus (Leipzig, 1902). 

Sternkopf, W. "Ciceros Briefwechsel mit D. Brutus und die Senatssitzung vom 

20. Dezember, 44," Philologus, 1901. 
VOGELER, L. Quae anno u. 710 post mortem C. lulii Caesaris acta sint in senatu 

Romano (Dissertation, Leipzig, 1877). 
Wegehaupt, W. p. Cornelius Dolabella (M. Gladbach, 1880). 
WiEGANDT, L. Caesar und die tribunische Gewalt (Dresden, 1890). 
WlLLENBiJCHER, H. Caesars Ermordung (Gutersloh, 1898). 



THE CAREER OF DECIMUS BRUTUS TO THE YEAR 

45 B. C. 

Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus was probably born in the year 
85 B. c. He was praetor in 45/ and Caesar, in preparing for his 
intended absence from Rome on the Parthian expedition, had desig- 
nated him consul for 42.^ If he was legally old enough to be praetor 
in 45, he would have reached the consular age in 42, and the year 
of his birth must have been not later than 85.^ Of course, it is 
possible that Caesar disregarded the age requirement in designating 
him for the consulship, as he did in the case of Dolabella* and of 
Antonius.^ But in the case of Decimus, that part of the law which 
required an interval of two years between the praetorship and the 
consulship was observed, and this favors the presumption that the 
provision in regard to the age requirement was also followed. On 
the other hand, it may be assumed that Decimus was not born 
before 85 ; for it is likely that a man of his ability and influence 
would attain the magistracies at the earliest age allowed by the 
law. The fact that Caesar in the De Bella GalHco ^ as late as 51 '^ 
designates him as adolescens throws little light upon the question 
of his age at that time : Caesar could very well have called him 
adolescens to distinguish him from his father of the same name,^ 
who may have been still living. The day that the news of Decimus' 
release from the siege of Mutina became known in Rome — that is, 
April 2y ^ — was the anniversary of his birth. Hence April 27, 85 
B. c, may be assumed as the date of his birth. 

He was the son of that Decimus Junius Brutus who was consul 
in 77.^'^ This is made evident by their identical praenomina, con- 

' Vide infra, p. 37. 

= Veil. ii. 60. s; App. B. C. iii. 98; Dio xliv. 14. 4. 

3 Cic. Phil. V. 4q; Abbott, Roman Political Institutions, p. 169. 

"Dio xliii. 51. 8; xliv. 22. i, 53. i; Phil. ii. 80; App. ii. 129; iii. 88. 

s Antonius, consul in 44, was born in 82. Groebe's Drumann, I, Anhang, p. 401. 

*iii. II. 5; vii. 9. I, 87. I. 

' When the De Bella Gallico was published: Schanz, Geschichfe der Rom. Lit., I, pp, 204 f. 

* Thesaurus Linguae Latinae, s. v. adolescens, I. B. 

9 Cic. Ad jam. xi. 14. 3; Ad Brtit. i. 15. 8; Schmidt, Jahrh. f. Phil., 1892, p. 333, and infra, pp. 94 f. 

"C./. i., 1(2), Ft. i,p. 154. 

17 



l8 DECIMUS JUNIUS BRUTUS ALBINUS 

sidered in connection with the respective periods in which their 
activities fell, and by the fact that the Decimus Brutus who was 
consul in JJ and his wife Sempronia are known to have had chil- 
dren at the time of the conspiracy of Catiline in 63.^^ The father 
of this Brutus was in turn Decimus Junius Brutus, consul in 138, 
who was called Gallaecus. The father of Gallaecus and great- 
grandfather of our Brutus was, as we learn from Cicero,^- a Marcus 
Junius Brutus. This could not have been the Marcus Brutus who 
was named by Pomponius ^" as one of the three founders of the 
civil law. The Brutus named by Pomponius, inasmuch as he 
flourished just before the times of Marius,^* was a contemporary of 
Gallaecus and, if we may judge by his praenomen, an older brother. 
Hence Gallaecus must have been the son of some other Marcus 
Brutus, and none fits better from the point of view of time than the 
consul of the year 178. Thus it will be seen that the father, grand- 
father, and great-grandfather of Decimus Brutus Albinus were all 
consuls. 

Marcus Junius Brutus, the great-grandfather of Decimus, rose 
to place and influence at a time when the senate was the supreme 
power in the state. His political success is evidence for the belief that 
he was thoroughly loyal to the rule of the senatorial oligarchy. 
His conservative attitude is shown by the opposition which, as 
tribune, he, together with his colleague and brother, Publius Junius 
Brutus,^^ made to the repeal of the lex Oppia — a law that had been 
passed in the stress of the Second Punic War to restrain the luxury 
of women. Elected to the praetorship for 191, the double jurisdic- 
tion of praetor urhanus and praetor peregrinus fell to his lot. The 
further task of superintending the dock-yards, and refitting and 
equipping old ships for the war with Antiochus the Great, was 
imposed upon him in consequence of the departure to Greece of his 
colleague, C. Livius, with the ships already prepared.^" As praetor, 
he dedicated the temple of the Great Idaean Mother ; on which 
occasion the Psendolus of Plautus was presented for the first time.^'^ 
In 189 he was one of the ten legati sent by the senate to arrange 
terms of peace with Antiochus.^^ Consul in 178, he undertook with 
his colleague the war against the Histri and brought it to a success- 

" Sail. Cat. 25, 40. " Cic. Brut. 8s, 107. '^ Digest I. 2. 2. 39. 

'■• Cic. Brut. 17s; Ad lam. vii. 22; De oral. ii. 224; De fin. i. 12; Pro Cluent. 141. 

's Liv. xxxiv. I, 3 f.; Val. Max. viiii. i. 3. '* Liv. xxxvi. 2. 6, 14, 15. 

'' Liv. xxxvi. 36. 4. Schanz, Geschichte der Rom. Lit.. I, p. 57. '* Liv. xxxvii. 55. 7. 



CAREER OF DECIMUS BRUTUS TO 45 B. C. I9 

ful end in the following year.^^ With two other commissioners,''*' 
he was sent to Asia in 171, to induce the allies, especially the 
Rhodians, to make war on behalf of the Romans against Perseus 
of Macedon, whose title of king had been bestowed on him by the 
senate in Brutus' own consulship.^^ We last hear of this Brutus as 
an unsuccessful candidate for the censorship in 169.-^ 

Decimus Junius Brutus Gallaecus, son of the preceding Brutus 
(consul, 138), signalized his consulship by the opposition which he, 
in conjunction with his colleague, P. Scipio Nasca, made to tiie 
tribunes and the populace. According to Valerius Maximus,'^^ the 
tribune C. Curiatius cited the consuls to appear before the assembly, 
and there tried to induce them to submit to the senate a measure 
providing that grain be purchased for the people by the state and 
that commissioners be appointed to attend to the matter. Scipio, 
who seems to have been the presiding consul at that time, did not 
hesitate to express his opposition to the suggestion of Curiatius. 
From the Epitome of Livy we learn that when the tribunes did not 
obtain the right of exempting ten men apiece from the levies which 
the consuls were making for the wars in Spain, they ordered the 
consuls to be cast into prison.^* This Brutus also distinguished 
himself by his military achievements in Further Spain. He gave 
lands to the Lusitanian captives who had been taken in the wars 
with Viriathus and established for them a new town, Valentia, near 
Saguntum.^^ He then completed the subjugation of Lusitania, 
being the first Roman commander to advance as far as the Atlantic 
Ocean.^® He also conquered the Gallaeci, a people of northwestern 
Spain, by a great battle in which 50,000 of them were slain, 6,000 
captured, and only a few escaped.^^ From this victory he earned 
the cognomen ex virtute of Gallaecus.^® Summoned from Further 
Spain by Aemilius Lepidus in 136, Brutus assisted that officer in 
the siege of Pallantia, a town of the Vaccaei, in north central 
Spain. This war, undertaken by Lepidus against the orders of the 
senate and without provocation on the part of the Vaccaei, was a 
failure. Lepidus and Brutus, when their armies had been reduced 

" Liv. xli. 5, 7, 10, 11; Jul. Obs. 62. " Liv. xliii. 14. i. 

" Liv. xlii. 45. « Val. Max. iii. 7. 3. 

" Liv. xlv. 9. 3: »4 Liv. Epit. 55; Cic. De legg. iii. 20. 

»s Liv. Epit. 55. '6 Liv. Epi(. 55; App. Hisp. 73-75; Cic. Pro Balb. 40. 

'1 Liv. Epit. 56; Oros. v. 5. 12; Strabo iii. 3. i (p. 152); Flor. i. 33. 12; Val. Max. vi. 4. Ext. 1. 

»» Veil. ii. 5; Schol. Bob. in Arch. (OreUi), p. 359. 



20 DECIMUS JUNIUS BRUTUS ALBINUS 

almost to starvation, were forced to raise the siege and retire by 
night, and nothing but the enemy's failure to pursue them saved 
them from utter destruction.^'' Brutus, however, in 136 celebrated 
a triumph over the Gallaeci and Lusitani.^^ There is a story in 
Valerius Maximus which seems to imply that his conduct in dealing 
with the Spaniards was marked by avarice.^^ Be that as it may, 
he showed his liberality at home by dedicating temples from the 
spoils of war,^- one of which was the Temple of Mars erected near 
the Circus Maximus.^^ The fronts of these temples he adorned 
with the verses of his friend, the poet Accius.=^* We learn from the 
Epitome of Livy ^^ that in 129, although C. Sempronius, the consul, 
had at first been unsuccessful in the war with the lapydes, he was 
afterward victorious, thanks to the valor of Decimus Brutus. In 
the beginning of 121 Brutus commanded the armed force of the 
aristocracy that attacked and slaughtered the partisans of Gaius 
Gracchus, who, under the leadership of Marcus Fulvius, had 
intrenched themselves on the Aventine.^^ According to Cicero, he 
was an augur" and a polished orator, well trained for his times 
both in Latin and Greek literature.^® His death occurred before 
that of the poet Accius.^^ His wife Clodia survived him.*'' 

Decimus Junius Brutus, the father of the Decimus Brutus with 
whom we are chiefly concerned, first appears in history, so far as 
we know, in the eventful year 100. It is a significant fact that he 
is expressly mentioned by Cicero*^ as one of those who took up 
arms against the tribune Saturninus, the praetor Glaucia, and their 
party when, besides the magistrates, cuncta nobilifas ac inventus 
ran together in rage to put to death those turbulent leaders of the 
democracy. Brutus was at the time probably a very young man, 
but he must, from this passage, have shared in the indignation of 
the nohilitas at the test oath for senators embodied in the agrarian 
law of Saturninus, and thus have been quite ready with the rest to 
repay mob violence in kind and to wreak vengeance on those demo- 
crats whom he considered enemies of the state.*^ During the inter- 

"9 App. Hisp. 80-83. 31 Val. Max. vi. 4. Ext. i. 

3° Eulrop. iv. 19; Plut. Tib. Gr. 21. 3a Val. Max. viii. 14. 2. 

33 Plin. N. H. xxxvi. 5. 26; Schol. Bob. in Arch. (Orelli), p. 359. 

34 Cic. Pro Arch. 27; Val. Max. viii. 14.2; Schol. Bob. loc. cit. 

35 Lib. 59. 36 Oros. v. 12. 3' Cic. De amicit. 7. 38 Qc. Brut. 107. 
39 Cic. loc. cit. Accius lived until about 86 — Teuffel & Schwabe (Warr), I, p. 191. 

*° Att. xii. 22. 2. 41 Cic. Pro Rabirio 21. 4j App. B. C. I. 28-33. 



CAREER OF DECIMUS BRUTUS TO 45 B. C. 21 

val between loo and '^'], a period marked by the Social War and 
the legislation resulting therefrom, by the civil wars between 
Marius and Sulla, by the Mithridatic wars, and by the triumph and 
domination of Sulla, not a word do we hear of Decimus Brutus. 

Even for the year y'j, when he was consul, we have no record of 
his activity either as statesman or as general. From the senatus 
consultum ultimum which was passed in the beginning of that year 
against Lepidus, the leader of the democratic revolt against the 
Sullan constitution, uti Appius Claudius interrex, etc.,*^ we infer 
that the consuls for the year had not yet been elected. But we 
know from a speech that Sallust puts in the mouth of Lepidus that 
Decimus Brutus was reckoned as one of the leaders of the con- 
servative nohilitas^^ even though he had no active part in putting 
down the sedition of Lepidus. We do not hear of him again until 
the year 74, when Verres was praetor. It seems that the young son 
of P. lunius Brutus, a relative (perhaps a brother) of Decimus 
Brutus, held by inheritance a contract which called for the keeping 
in repair of the Temple of Castor at Rome.*^ The business of inspect- 
ing the condition of this and of other public buildings was assigned 
to the praetors, C. Verres and P. Coelius. Although the temple was 
in good repair, one of the minions of Verres suggested to him that the 
shafts of the columns were not perpendicular. Verres seized upon 
this flimsy pretext and demanded that the young Brutus forfeit his 
contract with the state on the ground of non-performance. The estate 
of Decimus Brutus was involved as security, and he was forced to 
pay over to Verres' secretary 560,000 sesterces forfeit money. When 
the contract had been let anew, Verres was constrained to refund 
110,000 sesterces.*® From this transaction it will be seen that Deci- 
mus Brutus was a man of considerable wealth. He was also a 
scholar and busy pleader, as we learn from the testimony of Cicero : 
Multum etiam in causis versabahir isdem fere temporibus D. 
Brutus, is qui consul cum Mamerco fuit, homo et Graecis doctus 
litteris et Latinis.^'^ 

Sallust *^ informs us that Sempronia, the wife of Decimus Brutus 
and mother of Decimus Brutus Albinus, was involved in the con- 
spiracy of Catiline. He mentions her as one of a number of women 

*' Sail. Ex. hist.. Or. Phil. 22. ■»* In Verr., loc. cit. and 144, 150. 

** Sail. Ex. hist.. Or. Lep. 3. ■" Cic. Brut. 175. 

•»s In Verr. Act. ii. lib. I. 130. 48 Sail. Cat. 24, 25. 



22 DECIMUS JUNIUS BRUTUS ALBINUS 

who had Hved immoral and extravagant Hves and who, with the 
passing of their youth, had lost their means of gain and were now 
overwhelmed with debt. It was this class of women that, according 
to Sallust, Catiline had attached to his cause in the belief that through 
them he could enlist the slaves under his banner, set fire to the city, 
and secure either the co-operation or the destruction of their hus- 
bands. In this account Sempronia is represented as a woman of 
extraordinary passion and daring, utterly regardless of her honor or 
chastity, a reckless spendthrift, and even a murderess. She was, at 
the same time, ''quite fortunate in her birth and personal beauty, 
her children and her husband." Possessed of unusual literary attain- 
ments, she was a conversationalist of rare versatility, wit, and charm. 
At the time of the conspiracy of Catiline, she took advantage of the 
absence of her husband from the city ^^ to open her house to the 
intrigues of the conspirators. It was thither that P. Umbrenus 
brought the ambassadors of the Allobroges, unfolded to them the 
details of the plot, and secured their promise of alliance and 
assistance. 

From this narrative we can infer that Decimus Brutus had 
nothing to do with the conspiracy of Catiline and, from what we 
know of his previous history, we can readily believe that such a 
movement was utterly foreign to his sympathies. On the other 
hand, it is quite natural that Sempronia, with the democratic tradi- 
tions of her ancestry, should have been in sympathy with the radical 
leaders of the day. There was also a difference in character as well 
as in the politics and ancestral traditions of the husband and the 
wife. Sallust, however, probably exaggerated the bad side of Sem- 
pronia's character. She was doubtless a brilliant society woman — 
reckless and daring, and much too free in her manners for the good 
of her reputation. But Sallust wished to paint a picture of the cor- 
ruption in Roman society of the times, and so he chose Sempronia as 
a type for his rhetorical characterization. His well-known partiality 
for Caesar and his consequent hostility to Decimus Brutus Albinus, 
the son of Sempronia and one of the conspirators against the dictator, 
furnished him an additional motive for blackening the character of 
the mother.^*> 

Such was the parentage and ancestry of Decimus Junius Brutus, 

49 Sail. Cat. 40. 
' s" Cf. Schwartz, "Die Berichte iiber d. Catilinarische Verschworung," Hernies, XXXII, p. 570. 



CAREER OF DECIMUS BRUTUS TO 45 B. C. 23 

who in our Greek sources ^^ has the additional cognomen of Albinus. 
This was the cognomen of the gens Postumia, and hence we infer 
that Decimus was adopted into that well-known family.^^ The cor- 
rectness of this inference is established by coins of various types, 
one of which bears on the obverse the legend A. POSTVMIVS. 
COS./^ with the idealized head of the illustrious progenitor of the 
gens Postumia, Aulus Postumius Albus (or Albinus) Regillensis, 
who is said to have defeated the Latins in the battle of Lake Regillus, 
498 or 496 B. c, and to have prevented the return of the Tarquins 
to Rome.^^ On the reverse is the inscription ALBINVS BRVTI F. 
within a wreath of grain. But just which Postumius Albinus it was 
that adopted Decimus Brutus, it is hard to determine. It is some- 
times stated that it was the Aulus Postumius Albinus ^^ who was 
consul in the year 99.^® But if we can believe the testimony of Oro- 
sius/^ this Postumius was put to death by his own soldiers in 89, 
which was four years before the birth of Decimus Brutus. In that 
case he certainly was not Decimus' adoptive father. From the literary 
sources we know of only two Postumii with the cognomen Albinus 
who could have adopted Decimus : first, the Aulus Postumius Albinus, 
propraetor, who in 1 10 b. c. was left by his brother, Sp. Postumius 
Albinus, in charge of the army in Africa and who suffered an 
inglorious defeat at the hands of Jugurtha;^^ second, the Aulus 
Postumius Albinus who was appointed by Caesar governor of Sicily 
in the latter part of 49.^^^ Of these, the former died probably soon 
after Decimus was born, if not before, and the latter was presumably 
no older than Decimus, if as old. Hence who his adoptive father 
was must be left an open question. 

5' Dio xliv. 14. 3; Plut. Brut. 12, Caes. 64, Ant. 11. 

i' This method of indicating adoption, i. e., adding the cognomen of the adoptive father to the three 
names of the natural father, is exceptional. But toward the end of the republic there was no hard and fas t 
rule for naming adopted persons. Vide Ruggiero, Dizionario Epigraphico, s. v. Adoptio. 

S3 Eckhel.V. p. 229. Another type has on the obverse, the head of Mars; reverse, ALBINVS BRVTI 
F. with two Gallic trumpets crossed and two shields, one Gallic, the other Greek, indicating that it was 
struck after the capture of the Greek city of Massilia in 49. Vide Head, Co»»j of the Ancients, p. 118, 
No. 23; Babelon, Monnaies de la RipuUigue romaine. p. iii. 

'•♦ liv. ii. 19, 20, ai; Dionys. vi. 2 fif.; Val. Max. i. 8. i; Cic. De nat. dear. ii. 6 and iii. 11 ff. 

ss As by Gardthatisen, Augustus, I. i, p, 22 and Babelon, Monnaies de la Ripublique romaine, II, 
p. III. 

5* Plin, N. H. viii. 7. 19; Jul. Obseq. 106; Gell. iv. 6; Cic. Post Red. ad Quir. 11. 

5' Oros. V. 18. 22; cf. Liv. Epit. 75; Val. Max. Lx. 8. 13. 

s8 Sail. Jugurtha 37, 38. 

5» App. B. C. ii. 48. 8 



24 DECIMUS JUNIUS BRUTUS ALBINUS 

The first historical notice we have of Decimus Brutus is in 
Caesar's account of the war with the Veneti in the De Bello Gallico. 
What his motives were in accepting service under Caesar we can 
only surmise. We have seen that his ancestors on his father's side 
for three generations had been prominent in the party of the nobilitas. 
His father had helped to put down by force of arms the revolution of 
Saturninus and had been an outspoken opponent of Lepidus. But 
his mother had ardently espoused the cause of Catiline, and it was 
not a far cry from Catiline to Caesar. Sempronia must have been 
well acquainted with the latter, the real head of the Roman democ- 
racy, and must have foreseen the advantage of attaching her son's 
fortunes to Caesar. The young man himself, like many young men 
of that day, was doubtless attracted by the force and originality of 
the great popular leader. The prospect of a successful military 
career in Gaul was alluring. What more natural than that Decimus, 
whose grandfather was the most distinguished soldier of his time, 
should have waived his political prejudices and should have been 
influenced by his mother to take service under Caesar as the shortest 
road to almost certain military success? At any rate, Decimus 
went to Gaul with Caesar, not as a legaHis, but as a young man of 
birth attached to the staff of the general ^'^ and ready to take any 
military duty Caesar might assign him. And it so happened that the 
first responsibility placed upon him was one of great importance. 

It was in the year 56, when Caesar had already been two years 
in Gaul and had had time to make trial of the mettle of young Deci- 
mus, that he placed him in command of the fleet intended for the 
subjugation of the Veneti. These people occupied the southern 
portion of the peninsula of Brittany and were the most powerful 
maritime state of Gaul.*"'^ Possessing a large number of ships, they 
traded with the islanders across the channel, had the best ports on 
the coast, and exacted tribute from the neighboring tribes that used 
them. Trouble with the Veneti arose in this way. Caesar toward 
the end of 57, thinking that all Gaul had been subdued, placed his 
legions in winter quarters among the Carnutes, Andes, Turones, 
and other people in the region of the Loire valley, and set out for 
Italy and Illyricum.®^ In his absence, P. Crassus, commanding the 
seventh legion located among the Andes, dispatched officers to the 
various states near by for the purpose of securing provisions. The 

("> Cf. Caes. B. G. i. 39- a. *' B. G. iii. 7 S. '" Caes. B. G. ii. 35- 



CAREER OF DECIMUS BRUTUS TO 45 B. C. 25 

Veneti take the initiative, detain the men sent to them, put them in 
chains, and influence the CuriosoHtes and the Esubii to do the same. 
By active proselyting, the Veneti secured as alHes all the people 
along- the coast north of the Loire, including the Osismi, the Lexovii, 
Namnetes, Ambiliati, Morini, Diablintes, and Menapii. They also 
summon aid from Britain. These tribes unite in sending an embassy 
to P. Crassus to demand that he restore their hostages, if he wishes 
to get back the men he has sent among them for grain supplies. On 
hearing the news of the measures taken by the Veneti and their 
allies, Caesar orders ships of war to be built on the Loire, oarsmen 
to be provided from Narbo, and sailors and pilots to be collected. 
Returning to his army, in the early spring, he finds almost all the 
Gauls ready to revolt. In order to prevent a general uprising, he 
divides his army into several detachments and sends legati into dif- 
ferent quarters of the country to restrain the inhabitants of the vari- 
ous sections. Placing Decimus Brutus in command of the fleet and 
the auxiliary ships provided by the Pictones, Santoni, and other 
faithful tribes, he orders him to proceed as soon as possible to the 
seat of war among the Veneti. Caesar himself hastens thither with 
his land forces. 

Decimus with the fleet was detained for some time near the mouth 
of the Loire, owing to the storms together with the difficulty of 
ocean navigation along a coast where there were high tides and 
hardly any ports. Such a sea the Romans had never before 
encountered. Meanwhile Caesar had made a vain attempt to con- 
quer the Veneti by land. But he found that he could not subdue 
this resourceful, seafaring people by merely capturing their towns 
and destroying their property on land; and so, after having con- 
sumed most of the summer, he determined to wait for his fleet. His 
army was encamped upon the heights of St. Gildas de Ruis, while the 
enemies' ships were anchored at the mouth of the Auray below, 
when the Roman fleet finally, toward the end of the summer, entered 
the Bay of Quiberon.®^ The enemies' ships, two hundred and 
twenty strong, on the approach of the Romans, stood out to meet 
them. They were heavy craft with flat bottoms, sails of skin or 
leather, and lofty sides. They were so constructed that they could be 
easily moved from the shoals if left there by the ebbing tide, could 
withstand the high waves, and protect the sailors within from the 

*3 For the scene of the battle, cf. Hohnes' Conquest of Gaul, pp. 663 fif. 



26 DECIMUS JUNIUS BRUTUS ALBINUS 

missiles of the enemy. The vessels of Decimus were much lighter, 
were equipped with oars instead of sails, and excelled in swiftness. 
But they were less suited to sustain the shock of the waves and 
rocks, and were unequal to the dangers of the shoals. Besides, the 
Roman ships could make no impression with their prows on the 
stout sides of the Gallic vessels, and when turrets were run up on the 
decks, even these were surpassed in height by the lofty poops of the 
enemy. Decimus, however, had contrived a device for overcoming 
the disadvantages under which the Romans labored. He had caused 
sharp hooks or sickles like mural hooks to be fastened to the ends of 
long poles. With these the Romans, two or more galleys acting 
together, would seize the ropes that fastened the sailyards to the 
masts of a ship of the enemy and by rowing off in haste would cut 
them and thus would succeed in dismantling the craft. When the 
Roman soldiers had thus disabled, boarded, and captured one by one 
many of the enemies' ships, the rest turned and hastened to flee with 
the wind. But suddenly a calm arose, the flight of the barbarians 
was stayed, and the Romans, continuing their method of attack, 
sufifered very few of the enemies' vessels to escape.^* The 
Veneti and their allies had staked their fortunes on the issue of this 
single battle. They had engaged all their ships in this one spot. 
Those lost, their means of refuge were gone. So they made a com- 
plete surrender. 

Such is, in brief, the account ®^ that Caesar gives of this decisive 
battle in which Decimus Brutus played such a prominent part. By 

'■t Melber ("Dio Cassius' Bericht uber die Seeschlacht des D. Brutus gegen die Veneti," Commenta- 
tiones Woelfflinianae, pp. 291 fi.) has shown that Cassius Dio in his description of this battle perverts the 
facts, not only in a conscious effort to imitate Thucydides, but also for rhetorical effect. This investigation 
of Melber into the trustworthiness of Dio's account of battles has been confirmed by the more comprehen- 
sive researches of the Italian scholar, Columba (Cassio Dione e le guerre galliche, Napoli, 1902). The 
points wherein Dio's account (rxxix. 40-43) differs from that of Caesar on which it is based, as noted for 
the most part by Melber, are as follows: (i) He states that Decimus came with swift galleys from the 
Mediterranean to aid Caesar. (2) He represents Decimus as having cast anchor somewhere on the coast 
of the Bay of Quiberon, and the Veneti as sailing with the wind against him. (3) Brutus abandons his ships 
in fear of the impetus and superior numbers of the enemy and receives their attack on land. (4) The sud- 
den calm occurs at the beginning of the battle, when the enemy were advancing to the attack, and not 
when they were in full retreat, (s) The ships of the Veneti are propelled by oars. (6) The Roman ships 
ram the ships of the Veneti with their beaks and thus wreck them. (7) One Roman ship attacks two 
Gallic ships at a time. (8) The barbarians have neither bows and arrow nor stones, whereas in Caesar's 
account they are equipped with every kind of weapons. (9) The Romans set fire to some of the ships of 
the Veneti. 

6s Some things in the narrative of Caesar require to be explained. Did Caesar make use of ships in 
capturing the towns of the Veneti before the arrival of Decimus ? In B. G. iii. 12. i, the implication is that 
he did. Again, is it not likely that Caesar had in the vessels furnished by the Pictones, Santoni, and other 
allies, craft similar in construction to those of the enemy? 



CAREER OF DECIMUS BRUTUS TO 45 B. C. 27 

his skill on that day he earned Caesar's lasting gratitude. He had 
fought the first naval battle that is recorded to have been fought on 
the Atlantic Ocean ; he had prepared the way for Caesar's invasion 
of Britain ; and he had extended to naval warfare Caesar's reputation 
for success on land. 

Whether Decimus Brutus accompanied Caesar on his two expedi- 
tions to Britain in 55 and 54, our sources do not tell us. But it is 
highly probable that Caesar did not dispense with the services of his 
chief naval officer on these important ventures across the channel. 
Decimus does not reappear in Caesar's narrative until the begin- 
ning of the war with Vercingetorix.*''' Caesar was in the Cisal- 
pine province when he heard of this uprising of the tribes in 
central Gaul— an uprising which was started by the Carnutes ^'^ and 
communicated to the Arverni, and of which Vercingetorix of the 
latter tribe assumed the leadership. On receiving news of it, Caesar 
hastened with the recruits he had just levied to Narbonese Gaul. 
His legions were far away in the North, two in the country of the 
Lingones, six at Agedincum, and two on the borders of the Treveri.^^ 
The tribes between him and them were either in open rebellion or of 
uncertain loyalty. His problem was to get to these legions. To 
accomplish his object, he stationed troops along the frontier of the 
province and checked the advance of Lucterius, the ally of Vercin- 
getorix, who was approaching Narbo from the country of the Ruteni. 
He then proceeded with a part of his forces from Narbo, and with 
the reinforcements which he had brought from Italy, into the country 
of the Helvii, whose territory adjoined that of the Arverni. Thence, 
in the dead of winter, when the snow was six feet deep — for it was 
in the early part of the year 52— he crossed the Cevennes Mountains 
into the plains of the Arverni. Decimus Brutus accompanied him. 
Here Caesar tarried two days, while his cavalry raided the country 
and spread terror in their wake, waiting until his presence was 
reported to Vercingetorix and until that chieftain had begun to move 
from the country of the Bituriges to the defense of that of the 
Arverni. Then, on the pretense of collecting reinforcements and 
cavalry, he set out to join his legions, leaving Decimus in charge 
of the troops and promising that he would endeavor to return within 
three days. He urged Decimus to have the cavalry traverse the 
country far and wide in every direction.®® 

6« B. G. vii. 0. '' "• ^- vii. 2, 3, 4. ** B. C. vi. 44- 3- *' Caesar, BZG. vii. 7r[8, 9. 



28 DECIMUS JUNIUS BRUTUS ALBINUS 

We hear no more of Decimus until the last scene in the siege of 
Alesia. Holmes ''^ thinks that he probably returned to the province. 
It seems to me more likely that he led the recruits under his command 
to Agedincum ; for they were left there to guard the baggage when 
Labienus set out on his campaign against the Parish and the 
Senones.^^ In the De Bello GalUco ^- we read that, when Labienus 
had finished the business on which he had been sent to Lutetia Pari- 
siorum, he returned to Agedincum, where he had left the baggage of 
the whole army, and two days later proceeded with all his forces to 
join Caesar. Decimus Brutus, if our conjecture above is correct, 
accompanied him. Caesar himself was probably at this time in the 
country of the Senones, marching to meet Labienus.'^^ 

Both Labienus and Brutus '^* took part in the siege of Alesia. 
When the besieged were making the last desperate effort to break 
through Caesar's works at the foot of Montague de Flavigny, south 
of the Oserain, and when they had with a hail of missiles already 
driven Caesar's artillerymen from the towers, filled up his trenches, 
and torn down the rampart with its parapet, Brutus was first sent 
with cohorts to check them, then C. Fabius with other cohorts, and 
finally Caesar himself brought fresh men to aid, when the conflict 
raged more violently. The enemy was repulsed, and after Caesar 
had relieved Labienus on the north side of the mountain on which 
the town was situated, the victory was won and the place was 
captured. Thus it will be seen that Brutus had a part in the most 
desperate fighting of the whole siege. 

How he was employed for the remainder of the year 52 and for 
the following year we have no means of ascertaining. It is probable 
that he remained in Gaul with Caesar assisting him in his further 
work of conquest and pacification, and that, in the spring of the 
year 50, when Caesar came into Cisalpine Gaul to promote the 
candidacy of M. Antonius for -the augurate,'^^ Decimus accompanied 
him. Certain it is that he was in Rome in the late spring or early 
summer of 50. For Caelius, writing to Cicero near the first of 
May, announces the approaching marriage of Decimus.'^® Paula 
Valeria, soror Triari, divortium sine causa, quo die vir e provincia 

1° "Caesar's Conquest of Gaul, p. io6, n. i. '' B. G. vii. 62. 10. 

" B. G. vii. 57. I, and Holmes, p. 106, note. '^ B. G. vii. 56. 5. 

'♦ B. G. vii. 87. I. Caesar was on the slope of jFlavigny according to Holmes, p. 143, directing the 
operations of his troops. Cf. B. G. vii. 85. 1. 

's B. G. viii. so. 1-4. '* Cic. Fam. viii. 7. 2. 



CAREER OF DECIMUS BRUTUS TO 45 B. C. 29 

venturus erat, fecit; nuptura est D. Bruto. Of what Triarius " 
Paula Valeria was the sister we cannot with certainty determine. 
Nor do we know from whom she divorced herself sine causa. That 
she remained faithful to her new husband to the end of his life we 
infer from what Cicero says in a letter to Decimus written toward 
the end of January, 43 : '^^ Eo tempore Polla tua misit, ut ad te, si 
quid vellem, darem litterarum, cum, quid scriherem, non haheham. 

For the remainder of the year 50 we have no notice of Decimus. 
Whether he remained in Rome watching the progress of the exciting 
political events that led up to the Civil War or returned to Caesar 
in Gaul, our sources do not say. Neither have we any inditation 
of his whereabouts during the first months of active military opera- 
tions. Like the majority of Caesar's lieutenants, he felt justified by 
the circumstances in sharing the fortunes of his chief. When men 
like Cicero hesitated for a long time whether to take the side of 
Caesar or that of Pompeius, certainly through no partiality to the 
former, there must have been a large element of justice in Caesar's 
contentions against Pompeius and the senate. In view of the 
personal aspect of the quarrel and Decimus' previous relations to 
Caesar, his choice between the rival leaders seems perfectly reason- 
able and natural. And his decision in this matter by no means indi- 
cates that he had renounced the political traditions of his ancestors 
and espoused democratic principles, or that he was in favor of the 
one-man rule which was the unforeseen result of Caesar's triumph 
over his enemies. 

After the Pompeians had been driven out of Italy, and while 

" Purser thinks that it was P. Valerius Triarius, who in 54 on behalf of the Sardinians accused M. 
Scaurus of repetundae and later was about to accuse him of ambitus. This Triarius was a trained and 
industrious speaker and the son of that Triarius (L. Valerius) who in 77, as propraetor in Sardinia, bore 
arms against Lepidus, and afterward, as legatus of Lucullus, 67 b. c, suffered a defeat near Zela in Pontus 
at the hands of Mithradates— Ascon. In Scaur, p. 17 (ed. Kiessling)-, Att. iv. 16. 6.; Ad Q. Fr. iii. 2. 3; Att. 
iv. 17. s; Cic. De Imp. Pomp. 25; App. Mithr. 88, 89, 112, 120; Dio xxxvi. 10-12; Liv. Epit. 98; Plut. 
Lucull. 35. Others are of the opinion that Paula was the sister of C. Valerius Triarius, one of the inter- 
locutors in the De finibus of Cicero, who is highly commended by Cicero as a scholar and orator. He was on 
the side of Pompey in the Civil War and in command of the Asiatic ships off the coast of Dyrrhachium. He 
was present at the battle of Pharsalus, and it was on his advice that Pompey ordered his men not to stir 
from their places, but to await the attack of Caesar. This Triarius died before April 46, and Cicero was 
the guardian of his children— Orelli Onomasticon 2, s. v. Paula Valeria; Cic. De fin. i. 13; Brut. 265, 266 
Caes. B. C. iii. 5. 3, iii. 9. 2; Att. xii. 28. 3. Now it is possible that the two Triarii, Publius and Gains, 
were brothers. But had this been the case, Caelius would probably have written soror Triariorum. If 
they were not brothers, of which one Paula Valeria was the sister it is impossible from the data at hand to 
decide. Since Cicero was a friend of Gains and was more interested in him than in Publius , it would seem 
that CaeKus would be more likely to mention an occurrence in the family of the former than in that of the 
latter. 

'^ Fam. xi. 8. i. 



3© DECIMUS JUNIUS BRUTUS ALBINUS 

ships were being gathered to pursue them, Caesar determined to pro- 
ceed to Spain and detach the two provinces of that peninsula from 
the cause of Pompeius.'^® Before his departure from Italy, having 
summoned the senate for April i,^*' he recounted to it the wrongs to 
which he had been subjected by his enemies, proposed that peace 
commissioners be sent to Pompeius,^^ and endeavored to secure con- 
trol of the funds in the aerarium sanctius. L. Caecilius Metellus 
vetoed the bill passed by the senate intrusting Caesar with these 
funds and, effecting nothing by his veto, proceeded to guard the 
treasury doors in person.^- Caesar threatened Metellus with death, 
and his soldiers, under his orders, broke open the doors and carried 
off all the money of the state.®^ By this violence, in contrast with 
the reputation for clemency which he had courted ®* and up to this 
time deserved,^® he gave deep offense to the people.^'' Although 
justified by the plea of military necessity, this action was neverthe- 
less significant of the absolutism that was to follow. 

Caesar left Rome on April 7.^^ On his arrival in Further Gaul, 
he learned that L. Domitius Ahenobarbus had already set out to 
take possession of Massilia for Pompeius with seven fast sailing- 
vessels which he had secured from private individuals on the island 
of Igilium and in the neighborhood of Cosa on the coast of Etruria, 
and which he had manned with a crew of his slaves, freedmen, and 
tenants. He learned, too, that Pompeius had sent ahead of Domitius 
the legati of Massilia who were in Rome, with the earnest entreaty 
that they would not suffer their city to be won over from allegiance 
to him by the kind offices of Caesar. Accordingly, the Massiliots 
had closed their gates to Caesar, had summoned the neighboring 
mountaineers to their assistance, had brought grain from the sur- 
rounding country into the city, had begun the manufacture of arms, 
and were already engaged in repairing their walls, gates, and fleet.®* 
Caesar had a fruitless interview with the leading men of the town, 
who made professions of neutrality and refused to give him aid or 
to admit him within their walls. Meantime Domitius with his ships 
arrived, was received by them, and placed in command of the city. 

" Caes. B. C. i. 29, 30. s, Caes. B. C. i. 32. 

*o Att. be. 17. I. 8^ Dio xli. 17. 2; Fam. viii. 16. 1. 

83 Dio xli. 17. 2; App. B. C. ii. 41; Plut. Pomp. 62; Caes. 35; Att. x. 4. 8. 

'■» Att. ix. ^c. I. 

*s Caes. B. C. I. 23-, Dio xli. 15. '' Caes. B. C. i. 33. 4; Att. ix. 17. i, x. 8. 6. 

8« Att. X. 4. 8, 8. 6. 88 Caes. B. C. i. 34. 



CAREER OF DECIMUS BRUTUS TO 45 B. C. 3 1 

Smarting under this insult, Caesar ordered C. Trebonius to lead his 
three legions against the place,^^ prepared the usual siege works, and, 
in thirty days from the time that the timber was cut, built, equipped, 
and armed twelve galleys at Aries. When these had been brought 
to Massilia, he placed them under the command of Decimus Brutus 
as legatiis.^^ The legions and the siege from the land side he left in 
the charge of Trebonius. 

After the departure of Caesar for Spain,^^ Brutus must have 
spent some time in training his pilots and oarsmen, who had been 
procured from merchant vessels and were acquainted neither with 
the equipment of warships nor with the art of maneuvering them. 
His ships themselves were slow and unwieldy, owing to the fact 
that they had been constructed of unseasoned timber. But his 
fighting force was made up of the bravest men in the legions, 
centurions and antesignani, who were well provided with grappling- 
hooks, drags, javelins, darts, and other missiles. 

The Massiliots had equipped seventeen warships, eleven of which 
were supplied with decks. To these they added many smaller craft 
in order to frighten the Roman fleet by the mere force of numbers. 
They put on board numerous bowmen and a large force of the 
Albici, a people of the neighboring mountains, whose courage they 
stimulated with promises of reward. Domitius manned some of 
their ships with the tenants and shepherds whom he had brought 
with him from Italy. It was about the 27th of June ^^ when, with 
their complete equipment and overwhelming numbers — they had 
twenty-four ships to Brutus' twelve — they proceeded from the harbor 
to meet Decimus who had his station on the southeast side of the isle 
of Ratoneau.®^ Becoming aware of their approach Decimus brought 
forth his ships from their haven, and the battle began. Both sides 
fought with vigor and spirit. The mountaineers and the shepherds, 
the former with the promises of reward fresh in their minds, the 
latter in hope of freedom, were of great assistance to the Massiliots 
and displayed a courage almost equal to that of the Romans. The 
Massiliots, by the speed of their ships and by their skill, not only 

89 Hirtius B. G. viii. 54. 4; cf. B. C. i. 36. 4- '° Liv. Epit. no. 

91 Dio (xli. 19. 3, 4) informs us that Caesar before his departure suffered a repulse from the Massili- 
ots. He had expected to conquer them easily, but finding their opposition stubborn he turned them over. 
to his legati. This account of Dio is hardly trustworthy. 

9" Stoffel, Histoire de Jules Cesar, Guerre Civile, Livre i, pp. 253 ff., 286, 287. 

93 Stoffel, p. 84; cf. Rouby, Si^ge de Marseille par Cesar, p. 93. For account of the battle, vide Caes. 
B. C. i. 56 ff. 



32 DECIMUS JUNIUS BRUTUS ALBINUS 

baffled the Romans and eluded their attacks, but, whenever it was 
possible, they would surround single Roman ships with several of 
their own, or, sweeping past them would endeavor to break their 
oars and thus render them helpless. But when they were at close 
quarters with the Romans, the latter used their grappling-hooks. 
The men on one Roman ship would grapple and hold two of the 
enemy's ships, board them, and thus engage the Massiliots in hand- 
to-hand encounters. In these encounters Brutus' men showed their 
superiority in valor. They sank three of the enemy's ships, captured 
six,''* and drove the remainder back to the harbor.**^ The news 
of Brutus' victory reached Caesar at Ilerda, just when he had com- 
pleted his pontoon bridge across the Sicoris by means of which he 
obtained access to the provisions which he had so sorely needed. It 
marked a turn in the tide of his fortunes,®*^ which for a time had been 
extremely desperate. It not only produced a good impression on 
Caesar's own men, but, as Dio'''^ informs us, the story of it, told to 
the Iberians and purposely magnified, wrought such a change in 
some of them that they immediately espoused the cause of Caesar. 

But the Massiliots did not despair at this defeat.^^ They brought 
out old ships from the dockyards, refitted, armed, and manned them 
with oars, men, and pilots, of whom they had many, and thus 
brought their fleet up to its former number of vessels. Not content 
with this, they added fishing-smacks too, which they had decked to 
protect the oarsmen from missiles. When their fleet was thus 
repaired and strengthened, they received news of reinforcements. 
L. Nasidius, sent by Pompeius with a fleet of sixteen ships, had 
sailed through the Sicilian Straits unnoticed by Curio, whom Caesar 
had placed in command of the island of Sicily. He had picked up an 
additional ship at Messina and, setting out with his fleet from that 
place, had sent a fast little ship ahead to run the blockade, advise 
Domitius and the Massiliots of his approach, and urge them to 
unite with him for another attack on the fleet of Brutus. This news 
filled the Massiliots with high hopes. They embarked upon their 
ships with fresh courage and confidence. Getting a favorable wind, 
they set forth, probably before daylight, skirted close along the shore 
between the islands and the mainland, eluded the fleet of Brutus, 
and met Nasidius at Tauroentum, the rendezvous appointed. Brutus 

9* Cf. B. C. ii. 5- I- "^ B. C. i. 59. i. 98 c^es. B. C. ii. 3 ff 

9S B. C. i. 56-58. "'Dioxli. 21. 3,4. Cf. Caes. B. C. i. 60. 



CAREER OF DECIMUS BRUTUS TO 45 B. C. 33 

did not see the Massiliots' ships until they were safely past his 
station, but he immediately followed them. The time that had 
elapsed since the first battle he had employed in repairing the Mas- 
siliot ships which he had captured, so that his fleet now numbered 
eighteen vessels. The combined force of the enemy amounted to 
over forty galleys. In the face of such odds, Brutus made a speech 
of encouragement to his men, exhorting them to despise the valor 
of those whom they had already conquered. He then proceeded to 
the attack. The Massiliots believed that on the chance of that day 
depended the issue of all their fortunes, and at the outset their 
valor was all that the situation which they had made for themselves 
demanded. As the fight progressed, the ships of Brutus gradually 
drew apart from each other in order to give room for the skill of the 
pilots and for greater freedom and speed of movement. Brutus' 
men made much use of their grappling-hooks, as in the previous 
engagement, and when they laid hold of a ship of the enemy, they 
boarded her and fought hand to hand with her crew. At the same 
time they received many wounds ; for a hail of missiles fell upon them 
from the smaller craft of the enemy. Two Massiliot triremes, recog- 
nizing Brutus' ship by its colors, proceeded toward it from opposite 
directions to ram and perhaps sink it by the double shock. But 
Brutus escaped by urging his men to row forward with their utmost 
speed, and thus the two hostile ships, pushed on with violence, col- 
lided with one another. Both were disabled by the collision, and 
then the ships of Brutus attacked and sank them. The ships of Nasi- 
dius which were on the left wing had retired unhurt before the battle 
had fairly begun. Of the fleet of the Massiliots, five were sunk, four 
captured, and one withdrew from the battle with those of Nasidius. 
The latter vessels made their way to the coast of Hither Spain.®^ 
By this victory ^°° Brutus closed the sea to the Massiliots and 
completed the investment of the city. 

This naval battle was fought about the last of July.^**^ But it 
was not until the beginning of October that the Massiliots gave up 
the defense of their city by land. During this time Brutus was 
employed in maintaining the blockade of the port. A few days, 
however, before the town surrendered, L. Domitius, having learned 
of the decision of the Massiliots to give themselves up, resolved to 
run the blockade and effect his escape. He got together three 

»9 B. C. ii. 3-7. ^°° Stoffel, p. 90. "" Stoffel, pp. 253, 254, 287. 



34 DECIMUS JUNIUS BRUTUS ALBINUS 

ships, two of which he assigned to his friends, while he himself 
embarked upon the third. Just then a terrible storm came up, favor- 
ing the design, and Domitius and his company started upon their 
way. But Brutus' ships, keeping daily watch near the harbor, 
caught sight of them and weighed anchor to pursue. The ship 
that carried Domitius was faster than its pursuers and with the aid 
of the tempest soon disappeared from sight. The other two- were 
frightened by the formidable array of Brutus' ships and hastily 
retreated to the town.^"^ 

Brutus was probably present in command of his fleet at the 
surrender of the city. Upon him devolved the duty of receiving 
the ships which the Massiliots brought forth from their harbor and 
their dockyards.^°^ What Brutus did with these ships, or what 
became of his own fleet after the surrender of the city, no ancient 
writer informs us. Caesar tells us that on his departure for Italy he 
left two legions as a garrison for the city. StofTel thinks that these 
two legions were new recruits, levied in Italy by Antonius in obe- 
dience to orders from Caesar and sent to Massilia to occupy the 
town on the departure of the veteran legions of Trebonius, which 
Caesar dispatched to Italy.^"* If this be true, Trebonius must have 
accompanied his three legions into Italy. We know that he was 
praetor urbanns for the year 48.^**^ Hence it is probable that Decimus 
Brutus was placed in charge of the two legions which Caesar left 
behind at Massilia, and that he was given command of the town 
together with the fleet in the harbor. For Caesar, during his eleven 
days' dictatorship toward the end of 49, by virtue of his extra- 
ordinary powers, in providing governors for the provinces already 
under his control assigned Decimus Brutus to Transalpine Gaul.^°" 
Massilia then became a part of Decimus' province and a base for 
administering it,^"''^ while the two legions left there constituted his 
military force. This seems a small force for so extensive a province 
and one that had been so recently subdued ; yet Caesar seems to 
have summoned all the legions from Gaul to take part in the cam- 
paign against the Pompeians in Spain and for the difficult siege of 
Massilia.^*'^ No successor to Brutus was appointed for 47 or 46.^"® 

'"" Caes. B. C. ii. 22. 2-4. "5 Caes. B. C. Hi. 20. i. 

"3 Caes. B. C. ii. 22. 5. "^ App. B. C. ii. 48. 

«"■• Stoffel, Guerre Ciiiile, pp. 316, 317. "' E. Herzog, Galliae Narbonensis historia, pp. 102, 103. 
"' Hirtius B. G. viii. 54. 4, 5; Caes. B. C. i. 15. 3; 18. s; 25. i; 36, 4; 37. 1; 3p. 2. Cf. Stoffel, 
pp. 256 ff. and 33S ff- 

•°» App. 5. C ii. m; Liv. Epit. 114. 



CAREER OF DECIMUS BRUTUS TO 45 B. C. 35 

Indeed, it is highly probable that not until the middle of 45 did 
Caesar deem it expedient to relieve him of this important and diffi- 
cult post."" The exceptional duration of his governorship is proof 
of his success as a provincial administrator. But of what he did we 
know almost nothing. Merely a single sentence from the Epitome 
of Livy is the sum of the literary evidence that we possess for the 
history of Gaul during this period; but that brief statement is a 
tribute to Brutus' efificiency. After an account of the events of the 
war in Africa we read : Brutus legatus Caesaris in Gallia Bellovacos 
rehellantes proelio vicit.^^^ The Bellovaci had the reputation of being 
the bravest and most influential of all the Belgic tribes."^ In 57 
they had demanded the leadership in the war of the Belgae against 
Caesar. In 52 they had joined in the general revolt of the Gauls.^^^ 
They refused, however, to furnish their full quota of troops for the 
relief of Alesia, proudly declaring that they would wage war with 
the Romans on their own account and would yield obedience to the 
commands of no one. However, because of their guest-friendship 
for Commius,^^* at his request, they contributed two thousand men 
to the general levy. In the following year, 51, they made ready to 
carry out their boast and, with the assistance of several neighboring 
tribes, were preparing to attack the Suessiones, dependents of the 
Remi who were allies of Caesar. It required a force of seven 
legions for Caesar to subdue them. After a tedious campaign, how- 
ever, he had defeated them in a battle in which their leader, Correus, 
was slain, and had brought them to terms."^ But their spirit was 
unbroken, and they were, doubtless, still pre-eminent in military 
strength among the Gauls and Belgians,"® when in the year 46 
they again raised the standard of revolt, with the result as recorded 
above. The silence of subsequent history concerning them affords 
convincing testimony to the thoroughness with which they were 
subjugated by Brutus. , . 

"° Plut. Ant. II. 

'" Liv. /. c. For the location of the Bellovaci, cf. Strabo iv. 3. 5 (p. 194), iv. 6. 11 (p. 208); Ptol. 
ii. 9. 4; Plin. N. H. iv. 17- 106. 

"' Caes. B. G. ii. 4. 5.; Strabo iv. 4. 3. p. 196, avriav Se tSiv BeKyiav BeAAoaKOUs api'cTTOvs (t>a<rC. 
"i B. G. vii. 59. "s Hirtius B, G. viii. 6-22. 

"■» B. G. vii. 75. s- "* Hirt. B. G. viii. 6. 2. 



II 

DECIMUS' PART IN THE ASSASSINATION OF CAESAR 

Brutus did not remain in Gaul until the end of the year 45. 
Caesar probably desired him to be present in Rome on the occasion 
of his approaching triumph, and he was thus permitted to leave his 
province in the middle of the year/ before a successor had been 
appointed. Accordingly, he accompanied Caesar on the latter's 
leisurely and stately progress through the two Gauls and Italy. 
Plutarch,^ after reciting the fact that all the leading men of Rome 
went out several days' journey to meet Caesar on his return from 
Spain, informs us that, on the trip through Italy, Antonius enjoyed 
the conspicuous distinction of riding in the same chariot with the 
dictator, and that behind them rode Decimus Brutus and Octavius, the 
son of Caesar's niece, Attia. Octavius had been with Caesar in 
Spain. ^ Decimus Brutus had joined him in Transalpine Gaul ; 
Antonius,^ Marcus Brutus,-^ and other leading men of Rome had 
met him probably in the Cisalpine province. 

On the 13th of September, at his Lavican villa, before his entrance 
into Rome, Caesar made his will.*^ When this was read after Caesar's 
death, it was found that Decimus Brutus had been named among 
his substitute heirs and, together with others of the liheratores, 
among the guardians (httores) of his son if one should subsequently 
be born to him.'^ From the narrative of Suetonius we would infer 
that Decimus was the only one of the conspirators named in secundis 
heredibus. Dio^ states that Decimus, Antonius, and certain others 
of the conspirators were made guardians of Octavius, and heirs of 
Caesar's property if Octavius should fail to take. It is not likely 
that Caesar would name a guardian for Octavius who had already 

' Nic. Dam. Vita Caesaris lo; Lange, III, 460 f.; Schmidt, Der Briefwechsel des M. Tullius 
Cicero, pp.~369 f. 

' Plut. Ant. II. 3 Nic. Dam. Vita Caesaris 10. * Cic. Phil. 11. 78. 

s Att. xiii. II. 2, 23. I, 40. i; O. E. Schmidt, M. Junius Brutus, p. 176. 

* Suet. /!</. 83 ; Schmidt, Briefwechsel, p. 370; Lange, III, 461. 

' Suet. ltd. 83. 

' Dio xliv. 3'^. 2: OTL Tov T6 'OKTaouioi' vihv TTewoCrjTai KaX TOf 'ArTcofiov Tov T6 AeKi/JLOV Kai Tivas 
aAXous Twi' cr<j>ayeiav eTriTpdirovs t6 avTov koI KA.7)povojuous t^S ovaiaq, av ye /nrj es eKelvov eKdr). Cf. 
Plut. Cacs. 64; App. ii. 143, 146. 

36 



DECIMUS' PART IN THE ASSASSINATION 37 

assumed the toga virilis. Again, Dio would have us believe that 
Octavius was the sole heir to Caesar primo loco, while Suetonius 
tells us specifically that the dictator appointed as his three heirs the 
grandsons of his sisters, Gaius Octavius of three-fourths of his estate, 
and Lucius Pinarius and Quintus Pedius of the remaining fourth. 
In case of the failure of all three of these to take, the inheritance 
devolved upon his substitute heirs.** The statement that Appian 
makes in two passages,^" that Decimus was adopted by Caesar, is of 
course false. In fact, Suetonius gives us the only trustworthy 
information that we have for the terms of Caesar's will. Whether 
Decimus had any knowledge of the provisions of the document 
further than the fact that he was to be one of the guardians of a 
possible future heir, we do not know. Certain it is that the arrange- 
ment indicates Caesar's unlimited confidence in his former lieutenant. 
Nor are other marks of his confidence wanting. For, owing to 
the fact that Decimus obtained the province of Cisalpine Gaul for 
44 in accordance with the provisions of the lex lulia de provinciis,^^ 
we must infer that he had previously held the praetorship, inasmuch 
as the scope of that law embraced only praetorii and consulares. 
Therefore, though we have no direct testimony on this point, Lange 
is probably right in supposing that Decimus had been praetor in 45.^^ 
He was elected at the comitia which was held, after the triumph 
of Caesar and before October 13,^^ for choosing consuls, praetors, 
and quaestors to hold office during the latter part of 45. None of 
these magistrates had been chosen for that year, owing to the absence 
of Caesar, who alone was empowered to preside over the comitia for 
their election.^* The control of Caesar over elections was practically 
absolute, though he claimed the right of selecting only one-half of the 
magistrates other than the consuls. ^^ Hence it was in conformity 
with Caesar's desire that Decimus was made praetor in order that he 
might become governor of a province for the following year. The 

Cf. Codex Justinianus vi. 25. 10; Roby, Roman Private Law, I, p. 203, n. 2. 

'" App. B. C. ii. 143, 146. 

'' Cic. Phil. iii. 38. The law was passed in 46; cf. Dio xliii. 25. 3; Phil. i. 19; Lange, III, 456. 

'" Lange, III, 465. 

'3 After the triumph of Caesar and before that of Q. Fabius Maximus. Cf. Fasti Capitol. C. I. L. 
I, Pt. I, p. so. 

"■t Suet. lul. 76; Diojdii. 20. 4, xliii. 48. i, 47. i; Nic. Dam. 22 and Krueger, De rebus inde a bcllo 
Hispan. etc., gestis, pp. 30, 40. During the absence of Caesar there had been a provisional government 
of eight praejecti urhis. Cf. Lange, III, p. 459. 

^^ Suet. lid. 41; Dio xliii 45. i; Nic. Dam. 20; Dio xliii. 51. 3. 



38 DECIMUS JUNIUS BRUTUS ALBINUS 

distribution of provinces followed hard upon the election of magis- 
trates.^^ The praetorian provinces were assigned by a decree of 
Caesar ^^ without the casting of lots, and Cisalpine Gaul, considered 
the best province, was given to Decimus Brutus. ^^ At the same time 
that Hirtius and Pansa were chosen consuls for the year 43 — that is, 
toward the end of February, 44 — Decimus Brutus and Lucius 
Munatius Plancus were designated by Caesar as consuls for the 
year 42.^^ 

From what has been said it is clear that Caesar had done much to 
reward appropriately his able and hitherto loyal lieutenant. But he 
had bestowed equal favors on others who were less deserving. 
Among the supposed friends of the dictator, Decimus Brutus pos- 
sessed unique claims upon his gratitude. We know but little of his 
life up to this time, but all that we do know of it is to his credit. No 
breath of scandal in public or in private conduct attached itself to 
his name. Marcus Brutus with all his virtues was a harsh and 
sordid usurer ; Antonius, notoriously dishonest and corrupt ; Dola- 
bella, a licentious demagogue. There is nothing in the record to indi- 
cate that Decimus Brutus was actuated by selfish motives. Ancient 
and modern writers alike ascribe such motives to his colleague, 
Plancus, to Lepidus, and tO' Cassius. The support of men like 
Antonius, Dolabella, Plancus, and Lepidus gave no moral strength 
to Caesar's cause, whereas the loyalty of Decimus Brutus was a 
valuable moral asset. Not only did Decimus contribute character 
to the service of Caesar, he added ability too. He was conspicuous 
among all of Caesar's lieutenants for his unvarying success and 
substantial achievement. Lepidus, it is true, had obtained from the 
dictator the honor of a triumph. But he ill deserved such an honor ; 
a trial for extortion rather was his due. Trebonius, though an able 
military man, had been deserted by his own troops and compelled to 
flee from his province. Dolabella as tribune and Antonius as 
magister equitiim, in 47, had both done much by their dishonest 
measures to discredit and endanger the government of Caesar. Up 
to this time, at least, no failure or breach of trust marred the career 
of Decimus Brutus. To his skill and valor Caesar was indebted for 

'^ Krueger, pp. 30 and 41, n. 6; Dio xKii. 47. i. 

"' Dio xliii. 25. 4. r 

'8 App. B. C. iii. 2; Dio xlv. 9. 3; Nic. Dam. 28. 

19 Veil. ii. 60. s; App. iii. 98; Dioxliv. 14. 4; Cic. Fam. xi. 4; Nic. Dam. 22; Dio. xliii. 51- 2; Suet. 
lul. 80 for the comitia. 



DECIMUS' PART IN THE ASSASSINATION 39 

four notable victories, and in a fifth engagement he had played an 
honorable, though subordinate, part. 

Modern writers are wont to place undue emphasis upon the 
marks of friendship that Caesar bestowed upon Decimus, neglecting 
the quid pro quo of service rendered by the latter. And thus they 
are enabled to paint in blacker hues the conduct of Brutus on the 
Ides of March. For it is the almost universal judgment of historians 
that of all those who had a share in that day's deed, Decimus was the 
arch-traitor. Of the moderns only Gardthausen ^" and Seeck ^^ have 
essayed to present his conduct in a better, and, I think, a truer, light. 

Decimus had inherited from an honorable ancestry on his father's 
side a loyal devotion to the republican tradition that the senate 
should have a large share in the government of the state. He had 
been adopted into a family no less faithful to conservative political 
principles. Although, as a young man, he had entered military 
service under Caesar, it is by no means a necessary inference that 
he adopted the political faith of which Caesar was the recognized 
leader. He doubtless regarded the Civil War as a contest between 
Caesar and Pompey, with the balance of justice on the side of Caesar ; 
and he naturally followed his former leader, while at the same time 
he must have cherished, in some degree at least, the traditions of 
his real and adoptive ancestry.^^ But he was primarily a soldier, 
not a politician, and his political convictions had lost in definiteness 
and intensity during a life of engrossing military activity involving 
as it did long absence from Rome, the scene of party strife and 
turmoil. 

In the autumn of 45, when Decimus Brutus returned to Rome, 
he was still, comparatively speaking, a young man — not over forty. 
He had, so far as we know, not yet held a city magistracy and was 
without experience in city politics. He probably entertained the 
hope that Caesar, now that all his enemies had been conquered, 
would restore the free republic ^^ — an idea prevalent at the time and 

2° Gardthausen, Augustus, I, i, p. 23. 

"" Seeck {Kaiser Augustus, pp. 17 f.) thinks that Decimus was a democrat, but could not endure the 
idea of Caesar's being a king and tyrant. I do not believe that Decimus was ever a member of the demo- 
cratic party. 

" Both Seeck and Gardthausen cite the coins of Decimus that bear the image of the victor of Lake 
Regillus, Aulus Postumius Albus (or Albinus), the ancestor of the family into which Brutus was adopted, 
to show that Brutus honored the memory of the man who prevented the return of the Tarquins to Rome 
(vide supra, p. 23). 

23 Fam. xiii. 68. 2 (of September, 46). 



40 DECIMUS JUNIUS BRUTUS ALBINUS 

cherished by not a few lovers of the old regime. But at Rome he 
found, along with this hopeful attitude, a feeling of despair and 
a strong undercurrent of opposition to Caesar — an opposition that 
found voice in the mutual intercourse of friends, and was sometimes 
even bold enough to address the public ear.-* Of this opposition we 
have abundant evidence in Cicero's letters of the time. Its causes 
are not far to seek. The senate had become a mere instrument for 
registering the will of Caesar ; the magistrates were puppets for the 
execution of that will ; and the popular assembly, which had long 
ceased to be a healthy political body, was now but rarely permitted 
to elect magistrates, and then only to ratify the choice of the 
dictator."^ "You tell me of Catulus and of the times in which he 
lived," writes Cicero in 46 ; "what similarity is there between those 
times and these? Then I did not like to be free from the care of 
public business either, for any length of time. For I sat by the helm 
(of the ship of state) and held the tiller; while now there is scarce 
room for me in the hold." -^ "Can anyone who knows anything 
be happy now?" he asks in an earlier letter.-'^ There is no escape 
from the tyranny of Caesar.-® Freedom of speech and action is 
alike impossible. The result of the Spanish war boded no good to 
Rome in Cicero's opinion, for it would mean either massacre or 
slavery.^** In May of the next year, 45, Cicero had written a letter 
of political counsel to Caesar, a avfji./3ov\evTiK6v, such as Aris- 
totle and Isocrates had been wont to write to kings and princes, 
to Alexander in particular; but its tone did not exactly suit the 
friends of Caesar.^" Cicero gives the matter up. "For how base is 
flattery," he exclaims, "when life itself for me is base." ^^ Just 
about the time he had written this letter to Caesar, which he did not 
send, he intimated in a letter to Atticus that he would rather see 
Caesar dead and deified than safe on earth.^- When the ivory 
statue of Caesar was borne in the procession of the gods at the 
ludi circenses, it called forth sarcastic comment from Cicero: 
Populum vero praeclarum quod propter malum vicinum ne Victoriae 

=■• Cf. the book of Aulus Caecina against Caesar, Fam. vi. 7. i; Suet. lul. 75; Fam. vi. 5. 
'^ Att. xii. 8. i; Fam. v. 13. 3. 

»6 Fam. ix. 15. 3. 29 Pam. iv. 14. i. Cf. Fam. vi. 21. i. 

'T Fam. vii. 28. i. 3° Att. xiii. 26. 2; xiii. 27. i, 28. 2. 

=8 Fam. iv. 8. 2. 31 Alt. xiii 28. 2; cf. 30. 2. 

3" Att. xii. 45. (3) 2 : De Caesare vicino scripseram ad te, quia cognoram ex hiis litteris. Bum crvwaov 
Quirini malo quam Salutis. 



DECIMUS' PART IN THE ASSASSINATION 4I 

quidem ploditur! "' In another letter, a fortnight later, Cicero 
makes it clear that he is opposed to Caesar, but he adds: "The 
king knows that I have no spirit in me." From a letter of Cicero 
written early in August, 45, we learn that Marcus Brutus, after 
having gone to meet Caesar on his return from Gaul, was of the 
opinion that he would restore the republic. Cicero is skeptical of 
such news, his comment is exceedingly bitter, and he strongly hints 
that Marcus Brutus should imitate the examples of Ahala and the 
elder Brutus.^* It is inconceivable that Cicero should have been 
the only man in Rome or Italy who entertained such sentiments as 
we find above. He must have voiced a feeling common especially 
among the members of the senate — men of sensitive pride who had 
been deprived of the substance of their power and now were 
mocked by its shadow. 

It was into this atmosphere of discontent and silent opposition 
that Decimus Brutus entered on his return to Rome. He was soon 
to realize the difference between service under a superior military 
authority and the conduct of civil business under the irresponsible 
and despotic will of one man — between the freedom of the camp 
and province and the sickening subserviency of the city. 

Caesar's was a mild and benevolent tyranny, they tell us, but, for 
all that, it was oppressive to men's spirits. The change from the old 
to the new was too sudden, too radical, for those who cherished 
republican principles to be reconciled to it. Nay, they recoiled from 
it, and there was reaction, organized opposition, and conspiracy. 
A brief review of some of the events that culminated in the Ides of 
March will help us to understand the motives that actuated Decimus 
Brutus on that day. 

The news of Caesar's victory at Munda had reached Rome on the 
eve of the 20th of April. Soon thereafter it was decreed by the 
senate that in all the festal assemblies Caesar should have the right 
of appearing in the vestis triumphalis , of wearing always the laurel 
wreath of the triumphator,^^ and red shoes such as had been worn 
by the ancient Alban kings ^'^ to whom he claimed kinship through 
lulus. The servile senate voted him the title of Liberator, recorded 
it in the Fasti, and decreed a temple to Libertas.^'' The praenomen, 
Imperator, an appellation that victorious generals were wont to 

33 Att. xiii. 44. i; cf. Suet. lul. 76 and Cic. Att. xiii. 28.3. 

34 Att. xiii. 40. I. 36 Dio xliii. 43. 2. 

35 Dio xliii. 43. i; Suet. lul. 45. 37 Dio xliii. 44. r. 



42 DECIMUS JUNIUS BRUTUS ALBINUS 

receive on the field of battle, was decreed to him in perpetuum and 
also to his children.^^ They voted that he should have a domus 
puhlica distinguished by a fastigium, the usual ornament of temples,^' 
and that movable festivals (dies feriati), on the days of the victories 
of himself and his legati, should be celebrated in his honor.*^ Other 
distinctions of this kind they granted him, says Dio," by means of 
which they made him a monarch without disguise. He was to have 
the right of nominating magistrates — even those of the plehs — and 
to hold the consulship sine collega for ten years. The decrees of 
the senate granting the latter honors were probably ratified by the 
people.*- The people also voted that Caesar alone should be empow- 
ered to have soldiers and to control the public revenues.*^ Some- 
what later, probably about the middle of May, the senate decreed 
that an ivory statue of him should be borne upon the ferculum in the 
pompa circensis^^ along with the images of the gods. When this 
was actually done a month later, the people showed their indignation 
by the silence which they maintained when Caesar's image was 
borne past.'*^ Another statue the senate decreed to him, to be set 
up in the Temple of Quirinus and inscribed Deo Invicto, and they 
also placed one upon the Capitol with those of the ancient kings of 
Rome.*** Caesar did not accept some of these honors, we are told. 
For instance, soon after his entrance into the city, he relinquished 
the consulship with a self-denial, as Lange has suggested,*' more 
apparent than real, since in the previous year he had been vested with 
the dictatorship for ten years.*^ About the 7th of October *^ Caesar 
celebrated his triumph ex Hispanic — a triumph that angered the 
Romans beyond anything else, says Plutarch.^" For they were 
indignant that Caesar, having destroyed the family of their greatest 
man who had been unfortunate, should lead a procession in cele- 
bration of the calamities of his country and that he should exult in 
those things, the one excuse for which, in the eyes of gods and 
men, was the plea of necessity. It was on the occasion of this same 

38 Dio xliii. 44. 2. 3; Suet. lul. 76. 

39 Dio xliii. 44. 6. ''° Dio, loc. cit.; App. ii. 106. 
4' Dio xliii. 45. 1; Suet. lul. 76; App. ii. 106; cf. Nic. Dam. 20. 

*' TrpoxeipiVayro, says Dio (xliii. 45. i). "■» Dio loc. cit.; Suet. lul. 76; All. xlii. 28.3. 

13 Die xliii. 45. 2. *' Alt. xiii. 44. i; Pro rege Deiot. 33. 

46 Dio xliii. 45. 3; Att. xii. 45 (3) 2; Pro rege Dciot., loc. cit. 

■♦» Lange, III, pp. 462-63; Dio xliii. 46. 2; App. B. C. ii. 107. 

48 Dio xliii. 14. 4. 49 Krueger, p. 30. s° Plut. Caes. 56. 



I 



DECIMUS' PART IN THE ASSASSINATION 43 

triumph that, when Caesar passed the seats of the tribunes, Pontius 
Aquila, a member of the college, did not rise to do him honor. 
Caesar was angered beyond measure at this show of independence 
and did not soon forget the incident.^^ He increased the member- 
ship of the senate to nine hundred, admitting many foreigners and 
semi-barbarous Gauls, and making no discrimination against soldiers 
and sons of freedmen." This act called forth jests and sarcasms 
from the people, expressed in placards and popular songs.^^ 

A golden statue of the dictator was placed upon the Rostra.^* 
This too aroused unfavorable comment, as we gather from Cicero's 
speech in behalf of King Deiotarus,^^ delivered some time in 
November.^® 

At the time of the Saturnalia, when Quintus Fabius Maximus, 
Caesar's three-months' consul, was entering the theater and the lictor 
had given the usual warning of his approach, from all sides the 
cry arose : "He is no consul !" ^^ To show still further his con- 
tempt for their chief republican magistracy, on the death of Fabius 
on the last day of December, Caesar had Caninius Rebilus elected 
consul for the remainder of the year— that is, for a few hours. Such 
mockery of a venerable office made Caninius the butt of Cicero's 
biting wit, although the incident saddened Cicero. "These occur- 
rences seem ridiculous to you," he writes to Curius,^^ "for you are 
not here. Were you to see them, you could not restrain your tears." 
Caesar placed his private slaves in charge of the mint and the 
public revenues, and he committed the command of the three legions 
that he had left at Alexandria to a favorite, the son of his freedman 
Rufinus. His lack of self-restraint was apparent in his utterances 
to those about him: "The republic is nothing," he is reported to 
have said, "a mere name without form or substance." "Sulla was 
an ignoramus to lay down the dictatorship." "Men must speak 
more respectfully to me and must consider my word as law." ^^ ^ 

At the beginning of the next year (44) other honors were decreed 
to Caesar.*'" It was made lawful for him to appear anywhere, even 
in the city itself, clad in the vestis triumphalis, and to sit upon the 
sella curulis on any official occasion, save at the games, where he 

s" Suet. lul. 78. " Nic. Dam. 20. 

s» Suet. lul. 76, 80; Dio. xliii. 47. 3. 5= Cic. Pro Deiot. 34. 

53 Suet. lul. 80. =* Krueger, pp. 31, 41, n. 10. 

57 Suet. lul. 80. For date vide Krueger, p. 42, n. 12; C. I. L., I', p. 28. 

s8 Fam. vii. 30. i. " Suet. lul. 76, 77. '° Dio xliv. 4. 1-3. 



44 DECIMUS JUNIUS BRUTUS ALBINUS 

occupied a seat with the tribunes in token of the fact that he pos- 
sessed the trihunicia potestas. He was also empowered to dedicate the 
spolia opima to lupiter Feretrius, just as if he had slain the com- 
mander of the enemy with his own hand ; always to have lictors with 
laurel-wreathed fasces; and to enter the city on horseback (ovans) 
when he returned from the Feriae Latinae on the Alban Mount. 

Already the title of king- was being applied to Caesar by those 
about him without any marked disapproval on his part, though he 
ostensibly rejected the honor, when one day his statue on the rostra 
was found crowned with a laurel wreath. Two tribunes, C. Epidius 
Marullus and L. Caesetius Flavus, caused the symbol of monarchy to 
be lemoved. At the same time they spoke with praise of Caesar to the 
multitude, said that such flattery was contrary to his desires, and ac- 
cordingly had the offenders imprisoned. This action of the tribunes 
displeased Caesar not a little, but he took no immediate steps 
against them.''^ Soon after, however, when on January 26 Caesar 
was entering the city in ovation, returning from the Alban Mount, 
some of the people meeting the procession ventured to greet him 
in their acclamations with the title of king. Caesar deprecated this 
salutation, saying : 'T am not king, but Caesar." The same tribunes, 
Marullus and Caesetius, caused the man who had first raised this 
shout to be brought before their tribunal. Caesar could no longer 
conceal his anger at the interference of the tribunes. He laid an 
accusation against them before the senate. Some of the senators 
were in favor of inflicting the death penalty on them, but Caesar, 
through the instrumentality of Helvius Cinna, th'eir colleague, 
deprived them of their office by a vote of the assembly, and, by 
virtue of his powers as censor, he removed them from the senate,®^ 
new tribunes being chosen in their stead. Thus Caesar brought 
upon himself the odium of really desiring the kingly title and of 
being a tyrant.*'^ 

But the senate with still greater zeal occupied itself with devis- 
ing new honors for its lord and master. To soothe the irritation 

*' Dio xliv. 9; App. ii. io8; Suet. lid. 79; Veil. ii. 68. 4. 

'^ Dio xliv. 10; App. ii. 108; Suet. lul. 79, 80; Veil. ii. 68. 4, 5; Liv. Efit. 116; Nic. Dam. Vit. Caes. 
20. The account of Dio, as Schelle {Todeskampf der Romischen Republik, pp. 2 ff.) has shown, is incorrect 
in stating that Caesar, though angered, refrained from taking action against the tribunes until they had 
issued an edict complaining of a lack of freedom in discharging the duties of their magistracy. For such 
an edict there would have been no motive whatever until Caesar had in some way manifested his displeasure. 
Schelle has also shown in the same connection that Nicolaus and Appian (ii. 122, 138) are in error in stating 
that the tribunes were banished. They probably went into voluntary exile. 

'3 App. ii. 108. 



^ 



DECIMUS' PART IN THE ASSASSINATION 45 

caused by the tribunes in their zeal for the old order of things, the 
senate voted that Caesar be called Pater Patriae, and that this title 
should be indicated on coins ; that his birthday should be a dies 
feriatus; that statues of him be set up in all the municipia and in 
all the temples of Rome, and that, in addition, there should be two 
statues of him placed upon the rostra, ome adorned with the corona 
civica and the other with the corona ohsidionalis; that a temple of 
Concord, on the ground that the people enjoyed peace through 
Caesar, should be erected in his honor, and that there should be an 
annual festival in reminder thereof.®* Most of the business trans- 
acted by the senate during the months immediately preceding the 
Ides of March consisted in heaping upon the dictator honors that 
gradually raised him to^ the rank of a god. 

He was authorized to construct a new curia.^^ For the curia 
Hostilia, rebuilt both by Sulla and by Sulla's son, had been demol- 
ished, apparently in order that room might be made for the temple 
of Felicitas erected By Lepidus, but really that the name of Sulla 
might not be preserved on such an important building, and that 
Caesar's name might be honored in its stead. By a decree of the 
senate, the month (Quintilis) in which he was born was called 
Julius, and ome of the tribes chosen by lot was likewise called 
lulia. It Vvas voted that Caesar be the sole censor for life; that his 
person should be sacrosanct and inviolable everywhere ; ®® and that 
his own son, if any should be born to him, or his adopted son, should 
be pontifex maximus. Some time between the end of January and 
the 15th of February,*'^ Caesar, after resigning his ten years' dic- 
tatorship, was made dictator perpetuus. Other honors were decreed 
to him as follows : ^^ That he should have a golden throne {sella 
aurea) , the vestis regia, and a bodyguard of senators and knights ; 
that public prayers should be annually offered in his behalf; that 
men should swear by his "Fortune ;" and that all his acts should 
have the force of law. 

But the senate's ingenuity was not yet exhausted. It decreed 
that to Caesar, as to a hero, ludi quinquennales should be celebrated ; 
that at the LupercaUa another sodalitas of Luperci should be added 
to the Fabiani and the Quintiliani, which should be called Luperci 
luliani; and that in all gladiatorial games in Rome or elsewhere 

''* Dio xliv. 4. 4, 5. 's Dio xliv. 5. 

'* Nic. Dam. 22; App. ii. 106, etc. Cf. Lange. III. p. 470. 

6' C. I. L., I^ 38, 40; Phil. ii. 87. '« Dio xliv. 6. 



J 



46 DECIMUS JUNIUS BRUTUS ALBINUS 

in Italy one day should be consecrated to Caesar. When he showed 
his gratification at these honors,®® the senate decreed him a sella 
aurea in the theaters/" a crown of gold set with jewels like those of 
the gods/^ and a tensa of ivory in the processions of the ludi 
circenses. 

We are told that, owing to the confidence produced in Caesar 
by these extraordinary distinctions, he did not accept the body- 
guard of senators and knights which had been voted to him, and 
even diminished the Spanish guard which had hitherto attended 
him J- On the 15th of February, the occasion of the Lupercalia, 
as on the previous day, the auspices were taken and found unfavor- 
able.'^^ Caesar was said to have reached such a pitch of arrogance '^* 
that on the announcement that the omens were unpropitious he 
remarked : "They will be more propitious when I will it ; and even if 
a beast does not have a heart, it ought not to be considered a sign of 
coming evil." Thus Suetonius represents Caesar as showing a 
haughty disdain, not only for the political traditions of the Romans, 
but for their religious rites as well. All of our sources give us some 
account of what happened on this Lupercalia. In the main features 
of the occurrence they all agree. Caesar in royal robe sat upon the 
rostra on his sella aurea and watched the procession of the Luperci 
as they entered the Forum. Antonius, naked and anointed accord- 
ing to the custom of the Luperci, placed upon Caesar's head an ivy- 
wreathed diadem. Caesar cast it from him. Antonius placed it on 
his head again and again. Caesar refused to accept this token of 
kingship and sent it to the Capitol for the statue of Jove. The 
people applauded his apparent self-denial. Both Dio ''^ and Cicero ''^ 
inform us that he had it recorded in the Fasti that M. Antonius at 
the bidding of the people had offered him the royal power, and 
that he had refused to accept it. Why Caesar thought it worth 
while to concoct the falsehood that Antonius did this populi iussu, 
it is hard to see. "For this," says Dio, "he was suspected of having 
acted with premeditation and of having desired the name of king, 
but of wishing to have it thrust upon him. And so he was cordially 
hated." Schmidt has hardly succeeded in showing that the account 
of Nicolaus of Damascus, who tells of this incident in greater detail 

*» Dio xtiv. 6. 3. " Cic. De divin. I. 119; Val. Max. viii. 11. 2. 

1" Cf. Suet. lul. 76, suggestum in orchestra. '* Suet. lul. 77. 

" Flor. ii. 13 (iv. 2). 91. 's Dio xliv. 11. 3. 

" So says Suetonius. '* Cic. Phil. ii. 87. 



DECIMUS' PART IN THE ASSASSINATION 47 

than any other author," is the true oneJ^ It is difficult to believe 
that there were, as Nicolaus asserts, many who really wished Caesar 
to become kingJ® In fact, from Cicero and Plutarch we get a 
contrary impression. Cicero says that when Antonius showed the 
diadem there was a groan throughout the Forum (gemitus to to 
foro). Plutarch ^° has it that there was slight applause, which had 
been planned beforehand. Again, Nicolaus fails to mention the 
fact that Caesar had the incident recorded in the Fasti. He evi- 
dently considered this act little creditable to the great man. 

In the consular elections which occurred soon after the Luperca- 
lia, a goodly number of votes, probably in consequence of what 
was done on that day, were cast for the former tribunes, Caesetius 
and MaruUus.®^ Nicolaus ^^ tells us that L. Cornelius Cinna, a 
praetor, with the consent of Caesar, had already secured the passage 
of a law for the return of these tribunes and for the restoration of 
their right to hold office. But, as Schelle *^ has shown, there would 
have been no point in the people's voting for these tribunes to 
spite Caesar, after such magnanimity toward them as Nicolaus 
would ascribe to him. 

Not long after this election came the climax in that long and 
wearisome list of distinctions ^* which were voted to Caesar. It 
was enacted that he should be called Divus, that a temple should be 
consecrated to Caesar and his Clemency, and that Antonius should 
be flamen Caesaris. And what, says Dio, especially showed the 
purpose of the senators, at the same time that they voted these 
things, they enacted that a tomb be made for him within the 
Pomerium, and that the decrees in his honor be inscribed in gilt 
letters upon silver columns. 

Helvius Cinna, a tribune of the /»/^&.y, acknowledged, we hope with 
shame, that he had drafted a motion which Caesar had bidden him 
to introduce in his absence, to the effect that the dictator, in order 
that he might have children of his own, might lawfully marry 
whomsoever he chose.*^ But this motion was never introduced. 
These extraordinary distinctions were usually voted to Caesar in 

" Nic. Dam. 21. 

'* O. E. Schmidt, "Die letzten Kampfe der RomischenRepublik," Jahrb. f. Phil., Supplbd. 13, pp. 
674 ff- 

" Nic. Dam. loc. cit.: ttoAAois S' r)v koX fiovKoiievoi^ ^otriAea airbv avapi^iXoyta^ yevea-Bai, 

*° Plut. Caes. 61. *-' Schelle, pp. 3 f. 

*' Suet. lul. 80; Dio xliv. 11. 4; Nic. Dam. 22. 't Dio xliv. 6. 4, 7. i. 

'" Nic. Dam. 2z. *5 Suet. lid. 52; Dio xliv. 7. 3. 



48 DECIMUS JUNIUS BRUTUS ALBINUS 

his absence, in order that they might seem the free-will offering's 
of the senators. ^"^ On one occasion, probably when the last and 
highest honors were bestowed on him, the senate, led by the consul 
Antonius and the other magistrates and followed by the people, 
proceeded in a body to make known to Caesar its extravagant 
decrees.®'' Caesar at the time was seated in the pronaos of the 
Temple of Venus engaged in making contracts with the architects 
for his new Forum. When the procession approached, consisting 
as it did of the leading men of Rome, Caesar feigned not to notice 
it, but, keeping his seat, went on with his work. Not until one 
of his friends called his attention to the presence of these dignitaries 
of the state, did he give them an audience ; and then he showed his 
contempt for the representatives of the Roman people by refusing 
to rise from his seat to receive them. Both the senate and the 
people went away indignant at the insult.^® Various excuses were 
offered for this show of pride on the part of Caesar, but they failed 
to satisfy then as they do now.®^ 

It is worth while to inquire how far the opposition to Caesar 
— for that there was a party of opposition to him we have seen 
reflected in the letters of Cicero and elsewhere — shared in the 
responsibility for the decrees with which the senate endeavored to 
satiate his ambition and gratify his vanity. If we are to believe 
Plutarch,^" Cicero was the author of the first decrees conferring 
on Caesar distinctions of a human sort. Others in emulation caried 
these to excess and made Caesar an object of hatred even to moder- 
ate men. His enemies, says Plutarch, are thought to have had 
no less a share in this than his flatterers. Their object was to secure 
as many pretexts and grounds of accusation as possible against him. 
Dio hints at similar motives on the part of his enemies.^^ And 
Nicolaus''- is quite positive in his statement that some welcomed 
these extravagant honors to Caesar and published them abroad that 
they might excite envy and suspicion, and that Caesar, simple and 
guileless (!) as he was, fell into the trap which had been set for 
him. Antonius, in his letter to Hirtius and Octavianus,^^ accuses 

«' Dio xliv. 8. 2. 87 Nic. Dam. 22; Dio xliv. 8. 

88 Cf. with Nicolaus and Dio, Suet. lul. 78; Liv. Epit. n6; App. ii. 107. 

'9 Plut. Caes. 60 and Dio xliv. 8. 8. mention illness as one. But Dio informs us that he afterward 
walked home, thus invalidating this plea. Again Plutarch and Suetonius (ltd. 78) mention a story to the 
effect that Caesar was restrained by Cornelius Balbus when he was on the point of rising. But Jullien 
{De Balbo Maiore, p. 127) has vindicated Balbus from the charge of such ineptitude. 

9° Plut. Caei 57. 91 Dio xliv. 3. i. 92 Njc. Dam. 20. 93 phil. xiii. 40. 



DECIMUS' PART IN THE ASSASSINATION 49 

Cicero of having boasted that Caesar had been deceived by these 
distinctions. And Cicero himself says that the senators of the 
opposition used to be present in the senate under the tyranny of 
Caesar.''^ But there is no evidence that those who had a part in put- 
ting Caesar to death were responsible for the measures which 
tended to make him an object of ridicule and hatred to the people. 
Indeed, we are told by Dio ^^ that Cassius and some others became 
conspicuous because they did not vote for decrees to exalt Caesar. 
These "others" were in all probability those who became the asso- 
ciates of Cassius on the Ides of March. The prime mover in all 
these measures was, at least in the year 44 b. c, when they were 
multiplied to excess, the consul Antonius, who in the absence of 
Caesar was the presiding officer of the senate. It is expressly stated 
that M. Antonius proposed the law changing the name of the 
seventh month from Qviintilis to lulius because it was the time of 
Caesar's birth.^^ Again, it was Antonius who' proposed that the 
fifth day in the ludi circenses should be consecrated to Caesar.®'' 
No one of the conspirators is named as the author of any of the 
decrees above mentioned. In the absence of direct testimony, and 
in view of the facts just cited, it would seem that the extraordinary 
titles and honors voted to Caesar were conceived in the brains of 
corrupt politicians like Antonius and Dolabella, men who were 
greater enemies of the dictator than the conspirators themselves. 
The latter probably made no very vigorous protest against the acts 
of the senate, and that is about all that can be alleged against them. 
We come now to consider the origin of the conspiracy that 
resulted in the death of Caesar. We have seen that the dictator, 
notwithstanding the mildness of his rule, had on more than one 
occasion given deep offense to the conservative elements in Roman 
society and politics. Indeed, had he made a studied effort to do 
so, he could not have succeeded better in making himself unpopular, 
not onl}^ with the senate, but with many of the people as well. 
The consequence was that a large part of the senate — perhaps, a 
majority of that body — and a considerable element among the 
people came to look upon Caesar as a tyrant, an aspirant for the 
title as well as the power of a king, and an enemy to republican 
institutions. That the senate viewed him with no friendly eye 

9* Phil. xiii. 18. 9* Macrob. Sat. i. 12. 34. 

»s Dio xliv. 8. I. " Phil. ii. no. 



50 DECIMUS JUNIUS BRUTUS ALBINUS 

we know from their silent acquiescence in his death ; ^^ and the 
comparative complacence with which the people contemplated that 
tragedy was changed to anger only by the sensational laudatio 
funehris of Antonius. It would be nothing short of folly to assume 
that sixty or even eighty men constituted the entire opposition to 
Caesar. It would be nearer the truth to say that all those who 
were opposed to monarchy were in a state of passive opposition to 
the dictator, and that out of this passive opposition was developed 
among a few individuals an active agitation against the would-be 
king and tyrant. This agitation took shape in a definite plan of 
action — a plan of action that was suggested, and in a measure 
justified, by historical precedents. 

Men naturally recalled the fate of those who according to tradi- 
tion had aspired to kingly power. They remembered how Spurius 
Maelius nearly four hundred years before, because he was accused 
of designing to make himself king, had been slain by Servilius 
Ahala, the magister equihun, acting under the authority of Cincin- 
natus who had been illegally appointed dictator. Yet this "judicial 
murder" ^® had been sanctioned by the people of that time and by 
posterity on the plea of the terrible nature of the accusation.^"*^ 
Again, a mob of senators, knights, and plebeians, led by P. Scipio 
Nasica, attacked and killed Tiberius Gracchus with three hundred 
of his friends.^°^ This violence too was approved at the time and 
afterward by a large party in the state, the senate legalizing the 
death of Gracchus by voting him a public enemy {hostis)}^^ Scipio 
Aemilianus expressed the opinion of the Optimate party when 
he said that Tiberius was justly slain, if his intention had been 
to gain control of the state.^°=' The death of Gains Gracchus ^°* 
and of two hundred and fifty of his adherents was also compassed 
by an illegal senatus consultum ultimuni, giving the consul Opimius 
the imperiurn sine provocatione}'^° The acquittal of Opimius when 
he was brought to trial, quod indemnatos civis in carcerem coniecis- 

5* Cic. De divin. ii. 23. " Mommsen, History of Rome, I, p. 378. 

"=° Liv. iv. 13, 14, is; cf. Liv. iii. 55. 5. By the Valerio-Horatian law: A''*; guis ullum magislrahim 
sine provocatione crearei. Cf. Festus, p. 198. Cicero mentions other precedents {Phil. ii. 114): Sp. Cas- 
sius, Sp. Maelius, M. Manlius propter .nispicionem regni appetendi sunt necati. Cf. ii. 87. 

">" Veil. ii. 3; Plut. Ti. Gracch. 19. "' Val. Max. iv. 7. i. 

'"3 Cic. Pro Milone, 8; Veil. ii. 4. 4; Sail. lug. 31. 7: Occiso Ti. Graccho quern regnum parare 
aiebant. 

'°'> Orosius V. 12; Liv. Epil. 61. '°5 Cic. Pro Rah. perd. 12; Cat. iv. 10; i. 4. 



DECIMUS' PART IN THE ASSASSINATION 51 

j^^/°^ gave legal sanction to the death of Gains Gracchus and his 
followers. There is no doubt that the prejudice caused by the sus- 
picion that Gains was aiming to secure the regal power was the 
excuse for the failure to condemn those who slew him. 

Saturninus and Glaucia were the next to suffer a violent death 
for usurpation. In their case the action of their fellow-magistrates 
and the nobility under the authority of the senatus consultum ulti- 
muni was justified only by the precedent established in 121.^^^ But 
the democratic party probably did not admit that these men came 
by their deaths in a constitutional manner."^ Indeed there was 
no strictly legal justification for any of these acts of violence. The 
only reasonable plea that the senatorial party, which was respon- 
sible for them, could make, was that they were done for the security 
of the state.i"'' Yet they were not only approved of in after-times, 
but they were considered among the glorious achievements of the 
Optimate party."^ Thus a sentiment grew up among the members 
of that party that the slaying of a dangerous citizen was under 
certain circumstances not only just, but also necessary and highly 
commendable. "1 It was on this principle that the senate, at the 
suggestion of Cicero, exceeded its constitutional powers in having 
the adherents of Catihne strangled. On this plea Cicero undertook 
to justify Milo for the killing of Clodius. The removal of a political 
opponent, who was suspected of aspiring to be a king, by mob 
violence or by judicial murder was a traditional policy of the Opti- 
mate party. Hence this method of ridding the state of Caesar 
readily suggested itself to a few leaders of that party ; and, though 
they would have to proceed in his case without any pretense to 
legality, yet they felt that, in view of Caesar's extravagant usurpa- 
tions and his manifest desire of kingly power, their action would 
meet the hearty approval, not only of the men of their own time, 
but of posterity as well. 

It would be a mistake to judge the conduct of men who lived 
two thousand years ago by the ethical standards that prevail in 

'"IS Liv. Epit. 61. 

107 Willems, Le Senat de la Republique romaine, Vol. II, pp. 247 il. 

"°* For the democratic view vide Sail. Iiig. 31, 42. 

"9 Cic. De orat. ii. 106; cf. Willems, Le Sdnat, etc., Vol. II, p. 267, and Cic. De legg. iii. 8: Salus 
■populi suprcma lex esio. 

"° Cic. De lege Agr. ii. 10; Pro Milone 83. 

"' Cauer, Ciceros politisches Denken, pp. 115 fif. 



52 DECIMUS JUNIUS BRUTUS ALBINUS 

our time, just as it would be a mistake to expect their actions to 
square with the political philosophy that is the product of the last 
twenty centuries. We have seen that a large and respectable 
party among the Romans looked upon assassination and mob vio- 
lence under certain circumstances as essential to the very existence 
of the state, and therefore highly commendable. Hence it was that 
Cicero, in a letter to Atticus, could suggest that Marcus Brutus 
should resist by violence the tyranny of Caesar, and could cite as 
precedents for such an act the example of the elder Brutus who 
exiled the Tarquins, and of Gains Servilius Ahala who slew the 
would-be king,^^^ Spurius Maelius. 

The assassination of Caesar was therefore planned as a coup 
d'etat by the younger leaders of the Optimate party. There is 
good reason for believing, as I have endeavored to show, that 
Decimus Brutus was a member of that party; and his distinguished 
military services doubtless gave him prominence in the counsels of 
its leaders. Consequently, the friendship ^^^ between Caesar and 
Decimus did not deter Pacuvius Antistius Labeo and Gains Cas- 
sius Longinus from sounding him on the subject of the plot against 
Caesar. And here it is worth while to mention the manifestly 
erroneous impression conveyed by Plutarch when he intimates that 
Decimus was not an active or courageous man, and that his value 
to the conspiracy was due to the fact that he had a troop of gladia- 
tors which he was training for exhibition, and to the circumstance 
that he enjoyed the confidence of Caesar. It is hardly necessary 
to say that this irrelevant reflection upon the courage of Decimus 
Brutus, probably found by Plutarch in some highly prejudiced 
source, is shown to be baseless, not only by the previous career of 
Decimus but also by his subsequent history.^^* Plutarch goes on 
to tell us that Decimus made no reply to Cassius and Labeo, but 
that, on meeting M. Brutus privately and learning that he was the 
leader in the undertaking, he readily agreed to co-operate with 
him. But there must have been other considerations besides the 
influence of Marcus Brutus that prompted Decimus to join the 
conspirators. We know from Orosius ^^^ that the grandfather of 
Decimus Brutus with a large following of men had taken part in 

'" Alt. xiii. 40. I. "3 Plut. Bnit. 12. 

114 Plut. Brut. 12. And yet M. Paulus accepts the statement of Plutarch and seeks to justify it by 
subsequent events, with how much reason we shall see. 
"5 Orosius V. 12. 



DECIMUS' PART IN THE ASSASSINATION 53 

the riot which culminated in the death of Marcus Fulvius Flaccus 
and Gains Gracchus, and that his father had joined the consuls and 
other magistrates in the attack upon Saturninus and Glaucia.^^" 
Such appeals as were made tO' the other Brutus on the score of 
the reputation of his ancestry ^^'^ must have been no less cogent in 
leading Decimus to take part in putting Caesar tO' death. For he 
probably had as just a claim as Marcus to the distinction of being 
a descendant of the first republican consul, Lucius Brutus, who 
was instrumental in the expulsion of the Tarquins/^^ His immedi- 
ate ancestors on his father's side for three generations had been 
consistently in opposition to the alleged usurpations of democratic 
leaders, and he had been adopted into a family which was equally 
famous in the struggle against the kings, and which had furnished 
many prominent men to the Optimate party. The writers of Roman 
history whom Plutarch, Appian, and Cassius Dio followed and 
copied were bent on heaping obloquy upon Decimus Brutus for 
joining the conspirators against Caesar, but they do not assign 
any motive whatsoever for Decimus' conduct. Had he been con- 
trolled by selfish considerations, we certainly should have some 
inkling of the fact from the many sources that have come down to 
us. The cousin of Tiberius Gracchus had led the mob of gentle- 
men who put that leader to death, and Scipio Aemilianus, his 
brother-in-law and friend, after, Tiberius had been murdered, 
expressed a qualified approval of the deed.^^^ The conduct of Deci- 
mus Brutus in entering a conspiracy against his friend ^^° Caesar is 
perhaps a little easier to understand in the light of these precedents. 
But to undertake absolutely to justify that conduct in the light of 
modern ethical conceptions would be futile and is far from my pur- 
pose. And so I have attempted to present his act in the light in 
which he himself viewed it, and to show that he is not the arch- 
traitor he is pictured in the pages of such writers as Froude. 

Our sources all agree that Decimus Brutus was one of the leaders 
of the conspirators.^^^ His name is generally mentioned after those 

"* Cic. Pro Rabir. perd. 21. 

»'' Plut. Brut, g; App. ii. 112; Dio xliv. 12; Nic. Dam. ig: iroWa S' i^u>Tpvve koX i) ix 7ra\aiou 
BpovTOif virova-a evxAeia rlov Trpoyofioi' Tous ajrb 'Pw/ituAou Bao-Uei; t^s 'Pio/nijs KaTakeKvKoTiov Kai 
SrnJiOKpaTiav npiarov KaTaiTTrfiraiJieviav , 

"« Nicolaus (ig) states expressly that this was the motive influencing both the Bruii. 

"9 Veil. ii. 3. 1,4. 4; Cic. De amicit. loi. 

'" Veil. ii. 64. 2 says that Decimus was primus omnium amicorum. 

"' Suet. lul. 80; Veil. ii. 58. i, 2; App. B. C. ii. iii; Dio xliv. 14. 3; Plut. Caes. 64, Brut. 12; 
Nic. Dam. ig. 



54 DECIMUS JUNIUS BRUTUS ALBINUS 

of Brutus and Cassius. But Nicolaus Damascenus, who, living as 
he did nearer in time to the death of Caesar than any other of our 
extant sources, probably had a truer conception of the importance 
of Decimus Brutus, places his name first, not because the idea of 
the conspiracy originated with him, but because he was the most 
considerable figure in it. 

The death of Caesar was decided on some time before it was 
efifected.^-^ There was some debate among the conspirators as to 
the proper time and place. They deliberated whether to slay him 
while he was holding the centuriate comitia in the Campus Martins 
for the election of magistrates, or as he was walking along the 
via sacra, which it was his frequent custom to do, or at the 
entrance of the theater at the time of some gladiatorial exhibition.^^^ 
The activity at Rome in preparation for Caesar's Parthian expe- 
dition and the popular interest aroused by that undertaking were 
peculiarly favorable to the conspirators for perfecting their plans. 
A meeting of the senate on the Ides of March, four days before 
Caesar's intended departure from Rome, was announced to take 
place in the curia of Pompey.^-* There was a rumor current that 
at this meeting Lucius Cotta, one of the quindecemviri, in accord- 
ance with a prophecy contained in the Sibylline books to the effect 
that the Parthians could be conquered only by a king, was going to 
propose that Caesar be made king of the Roman dominions outside 
of Italy.^-^ . So the conspirators were not slow to decide on this as 
an auspicious place and occasion for their deed. The approaching 
departure of Caesar to the East and the probability that he would 
return thence with new conquests to his credit, thereby rendering 
his kingly ambitions more tolerable to the people, made the con- 
spirators anxious to accomplish their plan as soon as possible. 
Another consideration that influenced them to select the time and 
place they did, was the fact that the gladiators of Decimus Brutus 
were to give an exhibition on the Ides in the theater that adjoined 
the cttria.^-^ 

"= Krueger (p. 33 and note), following the order of events in Nic. Dam., thinks the conspiracy 
■was started about the middle of January. But Trebonius had proposed the assassination of Caesar to 
.Antonius in the pre\'ious year at Narbo (vide Plut. Ant. 13 and Cic. Phil. ii. 34. 75). This was probably 
in the early part of the year 45, when Antonius was ostensibly on his way to join Caesar in Spain to take 
part in the campaign against the sons of Pompey, and not when Antonius went to meet Caesar on the 
latter's return from Spain as Drumarm (Groebe) following Plutarch would have us believe (Drumann, 
Geschichte Roms, I, p. 55). 

'"3 Suet. lul. 80; Nic. Dam. 23. ''•* Suet. lul. 80; App. ii. no, in. 

'^s Suet. ltd. 7g; App. ii. no; Cic. De divin. ii. no; Plut. Caes. 60. '"' Dio xliv. 16. 2. 



DECIMUS' PART IN THE ASSASSINATION 55 

On the evening- of March 14 there was a state dinner at the 
house of Lepidus, Caesar's magister equitum, to Avhich, according to 
Appian, Caesar had invited Decimus Brutus.^^'^ Paulus ^^^ has 
made use of this incident to show that Decimus was at this time 
hving on terms of intimacy with Caesar, while at the same time he 
was a participant in the counsels of the conspirators. But this was 
a state dinner in honor of Caesar, and it is probable that many 
others of the tyrannoctoni besides Decimus Brutus were present.^^® 
At any rate, Decimus could not very well have absented himself 
since the dictator had bidden him. 

At dawn on the following day the senate assembled and sent 
word to Caesar that it was ready for business. i^<> Caesar had spent 
a bad night and was unwell. The omens and auspices were unfavor- 
able. His friends, his physicians, and his wife Calpurnia entreated 
him not to go out that day, but to adjourn the sitting of the 
senate."^ So Caesar was detained. To the dismay of the conspira- 
tors the rumor came that he would remain at home that day.^^^ 
The conspirators delegated Decimus Brutus, in view of Caesar's 
friendship for him, to go and use his good offices to induce the 
dictator to come to the senate house.^^^ Caesar had already made up 
his mind to send Antonius to dismiss the senate.^^* Decimus urged 
him not to heed the dreams of a woman and the prophecies of 
foolish men and by remaining at home insult the senate,^"^ a full 
meeting of which had assembled at his bidding and had long been 
awaiting his coming.^^*'' Decimus is also said by Plutarch ^^^ to 
have assured him that the senate was ready unanimously to vote 
that he be proclaimed king of the provinces outside of Italy, and 
that he might wear a diadem elsewhere than in Italy.^^^ Plutarch 
represents Decimus as appealing also to Caesar's dislike of criticism 
by suggesting that, if he dismissed the senate then and bade it 
assemble again when Calpurnia should have better dreams, even 

"' App. ii. 115; Suet. lul. 87; Plut. Caes. 63. 

'=^ Paulus, De Decimo, etc., p. 8, n. 2. 

1^5 For an entertaining account of this dinner, vide Willenbiicher, Caesar's Ermordung, pp. 41 ff. 

'3° Die xliv. 16. 2. 

'31 Nic. Dam. 23; Dio. xliv. 17; Plut. Caes. 63. '32 Dio xliv. 18. i. 

==33 Dio xliv. 18. i; Nic. Dam. 23; App. B. C. ii. 115; Suet. lul. 81; Plut. Caes. 64. 

'34 Plut. Caes. 63. '35 Nic. Dam. 23. '36 Suet. ltd. 81. '37 piut. Caes. 64. 

138 Willenbiicher (p. 53, n. 2), assuming the correctness of Plutarch's narrative, thinks that Caesar 
did not wish to let the opportunity slip of officially declining the crown before the senate also. Strange in 
so strong a character as Caesar's, this desire to parade a pretended virtue! 



56 DECIMUS JUNIUS BRUTUS ALBINUS 

his friends could not defend him against the imputation of tyranny. 
By such arguments, if we are to beheve Plutarch, Decimus Brutus 
led Caesar to his death. It was already about eleven o'clock in the 
morning when Caesar in his litter, attended by Decimus Brutus, 
Antonius, and a throng of people, set out for the senate house.^^* 
On his arrival there the usual sacrifices, preliminary to his entering 
the chamber, were made, but the omens were unfavorable. Many 
victims were slain at Caesar's bidding, yet no propitious sign could 
be obtained.^*" The dictator, owing to the entreaties of some of his 
friends, was again on the point of ordering the sitting of the senate 
adjourned to another day, when Decimus Brutus a second time inter- 
vened, urging him to disregard the warnings of the priests and not 
to postpone those acts which concerned him and his power, but to 
consider his own valor an augury of good.^*^ Thus prevailing on 
him, Decimus, according to Nicolaus, led him by the hand into the 

Decimus Brutus seems to have had no part in the actual slaying 
of Caesar. The testimony of Nicolaus ^*^ is as follows : "Decimus 
Brutus pierces him under the ribs. Cassius Longinus, hastening to 
give him another blow, misses his aim, and strikes the hand of 
Marcus Brutus." Paulus has shown that, by an error of Nicolaus 
or by a slip of the copyist, Ae/c/to? was written here for Ma/j/co9. 
For the person who pierced Caesar under the ribs and he whose 
hand was struck were the same, as the context shows. Again 
Appian says explicitly : "Brutus smote him in the thigh." ^^* That 
he meant Marcus Brutus is shown by another passage in which he 
says: "Cassius and Brutus [Marcus, from the context] at the same 
time inflicted wounds upon him." ^*^ Similar is the testimony of 
Plutarch, who says: "Brutus [i. e., Marcus] inflicted a wound upon 
him in the groin." ^*^ Since in no other source do we find mention 

'39 Suet. ltd. 81; Plut. Caes. 63, 64. 

'*" Suet. lul. 81; App. ii. 116; Nic. Dam. 24; Plut. Brut. 16. 

'*' Nic. Dam., loc. cit.; Appian {loc. cit.) has a similar account of Caesar's hesitation, but does not 
mention D. Brutus. Cf. Plut. Brut. 16. 

»*' This meeting-place of the senate, the curia Pompeia, was an exedra of the Porticus Pompeia which 
was connected with the scena of the theater of Pompeius. This group of buildings was erected by Pom- 
peius in the year 55. Cf. Richter, Topographie von Rom, pp. 227 S. 

143 Nic. Dam. 24: it-iKpov Sk Kd(7(7i09 tnro(^9as et? to irpocroynov eyKapviav avTcp irAijyjji' SCSukti • 
AeKfiOi Se BpouTOS i"rb Tali Xayotri 6ta;u.7rep6s Trai'et. Ka<r<rtos 8e Aoyyit'os erepav ineKSovvm, ir\j]yr]v 
iTirevSiav, ToO p.ev ap-apTavei, Tuyx'''*'*' ^^ Trjs MapKov BpouTou \(ip6i, 

'4* App. ii. 117: BpouTOs «? Toi' /Lir/pbv (eTrAjjfe). 

"45 App. ii. 122. '46 Plut. Caes. 66. 



DECIMUS' PART IN THE ASSASSINATION 57 

of Decimus, it is safe to conclude with Paulus that he was not in 
the senate house at the time, but that, after going in with Caesar, 
he had retired to his gladiators whom he had ordered to be in arms 
in a covered walk "^ of the portico somewhere between the curia 
and the theater of Pompeius. They were there ostensibly to seize 
a gladiator, who was expected to enter the theater at that time with 
another troop, but who had previously hired himself to Decimus. 
Decimus also pretended that he was going to give games in 
a contest with a man who was then giving an exhibition. But in 
reality his gladiators were there in order to be able to render 
immediate aid in case the liberatores should meet with any opposi- 
tion from the senators or others in their attack upon Caesar."^ 
When the deed had been done, the gladiators under the command of 
Decimus hurried to the curia.^*^ But they were not needed there. 
For in that full meeting of the senate, made up in large part of 
those who were members by Caesar's favor, no one raised a hand 
in defense of the struggling victim or dared to utter a word in 
protest against his assassination. One would think that there would 
have been at least one man in that large company ready to die with 
his master. But amazement and horror held them motionless.^°* 
Manifestations of loyalty there were none, except in the persons of 
Gains Calvisius Sabinus and Lucius Marcius Censorinus,^" who 
probably after Caesar had been slain made a show of fight and 
resistance, but only for a moment. When M. Brutus turned to 
address the senate, and, raising aloft his dagger, called Cicero by 
name and congratulated him on the recovery of liberty, the members 
would not stay to hear, but fled precipitately and by their flight filled 
the people with confusion and alarm.^^^ For there was a multi- 
tude outside the curia, a crowd of citizens and strangers, freedmen 
and slaves, who but a little while before had followed in the train of 
Caesar.^^^ These, also stricken with fear, fled in tumult and con- 

'47 Nic. Dam. 26; Dio xliv. 16. 2. "»' Nic. Dam. 26. 

>49 App. ii. 118: €« ToO OeoLTpov SU9eov « to. toO ^ouAcvTjjpi'ow jrapa</)pay/u.aTo. Appian 
probably is incorrect in saying that the gladiators ran from the theater. The account of Nicolaus is 
more detailed (of. Nic. 25) and probably more accurate. He tells us that some of the people in the theater 
thought that the gladiators had done the deed. Therefore the gladiators could not have been in the theater 
at the time. But it is not a matter of great importance, and Nicolaus' account is at least consistent and is 
supported by that of Dio xliv. 16. 2. 

•so Plut. Caes. 66, 67; Cic. De divin. ii. 23. '" Nic. Dam. 26. 

's» Plut. Caes. 67; Brut. 18; Dio. xliv. 20. i, 4; Suet. Ittl. 82; App. ii. 118; Cic. Phil. ii. 28. 

«s3 App. ii. 118. 



58 DECIMUS JUNIUS BRUTUS ALBINUS 

fusion. The people rushed out of the theater, not understanding 
what had happened, and, alarmed by the cries that seemed to 
come from every quarter,^^* ran to their houses and shops and 
locked themselves in.^^^ Among those that fled was Antonius, who, 
while the deed was being done, had been detained at the door of 
the senate house by Trebonius,^^*' and who, in the general confusion 
that followed, escaped unnoticed to his own house.^^^ 

The indifference of the senators and even of the people affords 
conclusive proof of Cicero's words : ^^^ O nines ergo in culpa. 
Eteniin omnes boni, quantum in ipsis fuit, Caesarem occiderunt: 
aliis consilium, aliis animus, aliis occasio defuit; voluntas nemini. 
The guilt of Caesar's assassination must not be borne by Decimus 
and his coadjutors alone. A great part of the state, and the better 
part too, shared in his crime, if crime it was. The fact that the 
liberatores met their deaths within three years,^^^ and that they 
failed utterly in their undertaking except that they made Augustus 
and Tiberius more cautious and more moderate than Caesar, does 
not prove that they were actuated by base motives. 

When everybody else had fled, the conspirators, with their 
togas wrapped about their left arms as shields and with their bloody 
daggers in their hands, left the senate house, attended by the gladia- 
tors of Decimus Brutus, marched in a body to the Forum, and thence 
to the Capitol.^'^" One of them carried a cap on a spear as an 
emblem of liberty. As they went they sought to allay the fears of 

'54 App. ii. 118; Nic. Dam. 25; Dio xliv. 20. i, 2. 

'55 App. loc cit.; Dio xliv. 20. 3; Nic. Dam. 26; Plut. Caes. 67. 

'56 Dio xliv. 19. 3; Plut. Brut. 17; App. ii. 117; Cic. Phil. ii. 34. 

^^57 Cic. Phil. ii. 34; App. ii. 118; Dio xliv. 22. 2; Plut. Ant. 14, Brut. 18, Caes. 67. Appian's state- 
ment that some of the senators vrere wounded in the tumult and others killed, and that many citizens and 
strangers vrere also murdered, is undoubtedly false. For (i) it was the express purpose of the liberatores 
to slay no one but Caesar; cf. Nic. Dam. 2s; (2) there would be no reason for killing people who were 
fleeing from them; (3) no other source gives any such information; indeed, Dio (xUv. 20. 4, 21. 2) states 
expressly that no one was murdered or even harmed. Cf. Plut. Brtit. 18. 

'ss Cic. Phil. ii. 29; Boissier, Cicero and His Friends, p. 301. 'sa Suet. lul. 89. 

160 Nicolaus (C. 25) says: e^al'favTes Stj TOVvrevOev ol a-(l>ayei'; e(j>evyov deovm Sta t^s dyopas 
6iy TO KaTnTiiKiov. But the testimony of Plutarch {Caes. 67) contradicts Nicolaus' statement as to the 
manner in which they proceeded: ol Si nepl Bpouror .... ex'^P"^" ^'^ ''''> KairiTcoAio^ ou <f)evyova-Lv 
eoiKOTEs, K.T. A. Plutarch's eWdence on this point is borne out by the account of Dio (xUv. 20, 21). 
Nor does Appian (ii. 119) give one the impression that the conspirators "fled in a run." Of course, 
they were under the strain of suppressed excitement. But their object was to allay the fears of the people. 
Is it conceivable that they woiild run as if in flight when they affected above everything else a show of 
confidence (fj-aXa <j>aLSol koI OappaKioL, says Plutarch) — especially when there was no immediate 
danger to run from ? Again, Nicolaus gives contradictory e^ddence. He states that, owing to their igno- 
rance of what had happened, there was a tumult among the people until they saw the murderers and 
MapKOf BpoOroi' navovTa tov Bopv^ov . . . . ws oiSevbs KaKov yeyovoTo?. Cf. Plut. Brut. 18. 



DECIMUS' PART IN THE ASSASSINATION 59 

the people, proclaimed that they had slain a king and tyrant, and 
called the people to their ancestral liberty. They halted in the 
Forum,"^ and, to a crowd that had gathered about them there, 
they spoke against Caesar and in behalf of popular rule, saying that 
they had not slain him from selfish motives, but in order that the 
people might be free and self-governing. The people became quiet, 
but did not receive them with enthusiasm, and the conspirators, 
joined by some who had had no share in the deed, proceeded to the 
Capitol to pay their vows to the gods."- When they had arrived 
there, they stationed guards at intervals around the place. For they 
feared Lepidus and his recently enrolled legion which was on the 
Tiber island, as well as the consul Antonius and the veterans of 
Caesar.^^^ 

The conspirators had already gone up to the Capitol when 
three slaves bore Caesar's mangled corpse upon a litter from the 
curia through the Forum to his residence."* 

To the crowd that thronged the Forum, L. Cornelius Cinna, the 
praetor, appeared and in full view laid aside his official robe 
because it had been given him by a tyrant, and proceeded to address 
the people, calling Caesar a tyrant and his slayers tyrannoctoni. 
Glorifying their deed, he urged that they be summoned from the 
Capitol as benefactors and rewarded as such."^ The speech of Cinna 
was probably too violent to meet the approval of the people. They 
showed no disposition to act on his suggestion. But when Publius 
Cornelius Dolabella, the young man who had been designated by 

'*' That the conspirators halted in the Forum and one or more of them addressed the people before 
going to the Capitol is expressly stated by Dio (xUv. 21. i ff.)- Nor is the account of Dio contradicted, but 
rather confirmed, by Appian, who, as Miiller has shown, gives a fragment of a speech then made. The 
truth is that the Forum was thek first objective point when they started from the curia. There they would 
find the people to whom they were desirous of explaining their deed and whose approval they confidently 
expected to obtain. It was only when the people did not join them (toC Sjj^ou Se avTo'L<; ov wpoa-edovToi, 
JJTrdpow KoX €Se6oiK6o-av— App. ii. 119) that they proceeded to the Capitol. Hence the impression was 
produced that they fled thither. 

i6» Dio xhv. 2i.2.t:.The names of those who joined the conspirators were, Lentulus Spinther, Favonius, 
M. Aquinus, Murcus, Patiscus, and Gains Octavius. Vide Plut. Caes. 67. Appian (ii. 119) also mentions 
Dolabella in the list, but he probably went up to the Capitol later. 

^'3 App. ii. 118, 119; Dio xliv. 21. 2. 

'*♦ Nic. Dam. 26; Suet. lul. 82; App. ii. 118. 

I's App. ii. 121. Appian's charge in chaps. 120 and 121 that the conspirators bribed the multitude 
is not borne out by the other sources. This accusation must be ascribed to Appian's strong Caesarian 
bias. Krause (p. 5) shows that the mood of the people was not so hostile to the consphators at that time. 

Plutarch (Brut. iS) erroneously places Cinna's contio after the descent of the conspirators from the 
Capitol and after Brutus' speech. Appian's account of the order of these events is the correct one. For 
Plutarch's error in regard to Cinna vide Drumann (Groebe), II. p. ."loS, n. 10. 



6o DECIMUS JUNIUS BRUTUS ALBINUS 

Caesar to succeed him in the consulship when he should leave for 
the Parthian expedition, appeared in the consul's dress and insig- 
nia,'^^^ and pretended to have been privy to the plot against Caesar 
and to have been absent from its execution against his will, then 
the conspirators were summoned from the Capitol by the people, and 
Brutus and Cassius went down to the Forum alone, according to 
Appian, accompanied by the gladiators of Decimus Brutus and by 
slaves, according to the account of Nicolaus of Damascus. Plutarch 
states that all the conspirators descended to the Forum.^'^'^ It 
seems unlikely that the conspirators should have entirely deserted 
their stronghold, especially as the troops of Lepidus had probably 
by that time been posted in the Campus Martins ^^^ im the rear of 
the Capitoline Hill. How easy it would have been for Lepidus to 
occupy the Capitol during the absence of Marcus Brutus and his 
party ! Again there was no such danger to Brutus and Cassius 
alone from the crowd in the Forum as modern writers think. For 
did not the people request them to come down,^^^ and had not Dola- 
bella with impunity just assailed Caesar? At any rate, both Brutus 
and Cassius addressed the people,^^° Brutus being the principal 
speaker. They were heard in respectful silence. Neither one, Appian 
tells us, assumed a humble tone, but spoke of what they had done 
as something confessedly noble. They praised one another, eulogized 
the city, and especially commended Decimus because he had fur- 
nished them with gladiators in good season.^^^ They also urged 
the people to imitate tl\e deeds of their ancestors who had destroyed 
kings that did not rule by force as Caesar did, and to choose their 
magistrates in accordance with the laws. They advocated the recall 
of Sextus Pompeius and the tribunes, Caesetius and Marullus, who 

'** App. ii. 122. Dolabella's assumption of the consulship was on the afternoon of the Ides. For 
Dio (xliv. 22) places it before the occupation of the Forum by Lepidus with his troops which occurred 
during the night of the isth-i6th or on the early morning of the i6th. And Appian places it before the 
descent of the conspirators from the Capitol. It is little probable that the conspirators or their friends, real 
or pretended, appeared in the Forum on the i6th, when it was occupied by the hostile troops of Lepidus. 
How much more natural was it for Dolabella at that time to appear in favor of the conspirators, than after- 
ward when popular opinion had been influenced against them by the active measures of Lepidus and 
Antonius. 

•*' App. ii. 122; Nic. Dam. 26; Plut. Caes. 67, Brut. 18. 

''* App. ii. 118; Dio. iliv. 19. 2. "'» Plut. Brut. 18; App. ii. 122. 

"'° App., /oc. cit.; Nic. Dam. 26; Plut. Brut. Joe. cit., Caes. 67. As I have already stated, the descent 
of Brutus and Cassius from the Capitol and their speeches in the Forum must have occurred on the Ides. 
For so Nicolaus puts it (Schmidt, Die leizten Kampfe, p. 681). 

"' This is Appian 's own reason why they praised Decimus. Brutus and Cassius would not have 
been so naive as to give such a reason for commending their fellow-conspirator. 



DECIMUS' PART IN THE ASSASSINATION 6 1 

had gone into voluntary exile when they had been deprived of their 
office by Caesar .^^^^ 

After their speeches, which were probably not received with 
the enthusiasm they had anticipated, Brutus and Cassius, not feeling 
entire confidence in the existing state of affairs, returned to the 
Capitol."^' In the evening the friends and relatives of the libera- 
tores, and among them Dolabella, Cicero, and other consulares 
repaired to the Capitol."^ There was probably a free discussion of 
the situation and of what was best to be done. Cicero urged with 
much vehemence that the praetors, Marcus Brutus and Cassius, 
immediately call the senate to meet in the Capitol.^^^ Some one, 
probably, also advocated that the liberatores through their influence 
in the senate, of which they and their friends constituted a 
majority,"^ carry out the intention, which Suetonius"^ tells us 
thev originally had, namely, to have a decree passed commanding 
Caesar's body to be thrown into the Tiber, his property confiscated, 
and his acts rescinded. But more moderate counsels prevailed. For 
the conspirators probably saw that, if the senate passed such an act, 
it would cause an immediate clash between themselves and their 
gladiators on one side, and the troops of Lepidus reinforced by the 
veterans of Caesar on the other. They hoped that the republic 
might be restored without resort to arms. They did not foresee that 
Roman society (especially the military element) at that time was 
too much subject to the corrupt influence of powerful and designing 
leaders for any such hope to be realized. So, instead of accepting 
Cicero's advice, they proposed to send commissioners to Antonius, 
the consul, and Lepidus, Caesar's magister equitum, with a view 
to the re-establishment of the republic. They wished Cicero to be 
one of these commissioners, but he refused owing to lack of confi- 
dence in M. Antonius."^ Other consulares ^'^ then went to Antonius 
and Lepidus to treat with them on behalf of the liberatores for peace, 

'7= Schelle, Todeskampf, pp. 2-5; App. ii. 122. FrohUch (De rebus a Caesare occiso, etc.. p. 57) puts 
the descent of Brutus and Cassius to the Forum on the Ides. It was certainly not on the i6th when Lepidus 
held the Forum. 

"3 Nic. Dam. 27; App. ii. 123. 

"♦ App. ii. 123; Dio xliv. 22. i; Cic. Alt. xiv. 10. i, Phil. ii. 89. 

I7S Cic. Att., loc. cil. "* App. ii. 124, 127. 

'" Suet lul. 83. Suetonius does not say that the conspirators intended that these acts be authorized 
by the senate. But his language certainly implies such a senatus consuUum involving the damnatto 
memoriae of the dictator. Cf. Appian's account in chap. 127 of the debate in the senate on the 17th. 

178 Cic. Phil. ii. 89. ■" Cic, loc. cit. 



62 DECIMUS JUNIUS BRUTUS ALBINUS 

the safeguarding of freedom, and the avoidance of bloodshed.^*" 
One specific proposition they made as a basis of agreement, namely, 
that Caesar's appointments to office remain in force.^®^ They also 
invited Antonius and Lepidus up to the Capitol to discuss in person 
the matters proposed. ^^^ Antonius and Lepidus postponed making 
their reply until the next day.^^^ They wished to avenge Caesar, 
acording to Appian, on account of friendship, the obligation of their 
oaths, or because of their own ambition to rule. They thought that 
all things would be easier for them, if so many powerful men should 
be removed at a single stroke. But they feared the friends and 
relatives of the conspirators and the senate, which was favorable to 
them, and especially did they fear Decimus Brutus, whom Caesar 
had chosen governor of Cisalpine Gaul, where there was a large 
army. They resolved to endeavor to attach this army to their own 
cause. ^^* Their policy was delay, and this was especially true in 
the case of Antonius, who as yet had no military force at his back 
and who wished time to gain over the veterans of Caesar, many of 
whom were at that time in the city, having come to see Caesar off 
for the East. 

We have assumed all along that Decimus Brutus had left tlie 
curia with the other conspirators and had remained with them up 
to the time when the commissioners returned from Antonius and 
Lepidus. On the next evening, however, the i6th, Decimus was no 
longer with his colleagues on the Capitol, but was somewhere else 
in the city, either at his home or in hiding. For on the morning of 
the 17th, if Schmidt's dating of the letter {Fam. xi. i) is, as I 
believe, the correct one,^^'' Decimus wrote to Marcus Brutus and 
Cassius, saying, among other things : Heri vesperi apud me Hirtius 
fiiit. It remains for us to explain when and why he left them. 

In this letter certain expressions occur which indicate that, 
wherever Decimus is, he is authorized to speak for his associates 

''" App. ii. 123. '^^ Nic. Dam. 27. 

'^' Nic. Dam. 27. "^^ Echoed in Fam. xi. i. i. Vide infra. 

'^■t This is Appian 's report (ii. 124) of the motives and aims of Antonius and Lepidus. 

'*s Schmidt, " Correspondenz Ciceros seit Caesars Tode," Jahrb. /. Phil., 1884, p. 334. This dating 
is accepted by Tyrell and Purser (V, p. 217) and Abbott, Letters of Cicero, p. 248. But Groebe (Drumana, 
Anhang, I, pp. 409 ii.) thinks that the letter was written on the morning of the i6th. The only objection 
that I can see to the dating of Schmidt is that there is no mention of the meeting of the senate that took 
place on the 17th and was in progress at the time Schmidt supposes Decimus to have written. But why 
should Decimus speak of that which the conspirators on the Capitol would know ? The acts of Caesar 
had not yet been ratified. The senate had probably at that time come to no conclusion whatever in regard 
to the issue raised by the death of Caesar, and the debate was still in progress. The letter of Decimus 



DECIMUS' PART IN THE ASSASSINATION 63 

on the Capitol. In the first two sections he gives an account of an 
interview he has had with Hirtius. Hirtius had reported to him 
Antonius' disposition toward him and the rest— that it was the 
worst and most treacherous ; Antonius had said that he could not 
give him (Decimus) a province, and did not think that any of the 
conspirators were safe in the city — so excited were the people and 
soldiers. "Both of these statements I think you understand are false," 
continues Decimus, "and, as Hirtius showed, this is true, namely, 
that Antonius is afraid that, if we should obtain even a moderate 
support for our position, no part would be left for them to play in 
the state. Being in this difficult situation, I resolved to demand 
for myself and the rest of us a legatio libera, that some honorable 
excuse for leaving the city might be found." The expression, 
placitum est mihi ut postularem legationem liberam mihi reliquisque 
nostris, shows that Decimus is treating with Hirtius, not only for 
himself, but also in behalf of his confederates. The letter continues : 
"Hirtius promised to secure for us a legatio libera, but I have no 
confidence that he will secure it, the general feeling is so overbearing 
and hostile to us ; and if they do grant our request, I believe that, in 
spite of it, they will adjudge us enemies or sentence us to exile." 
In view of his lack of confidence in Antonius and his party, Deci- 
mus suggests that they go into voluntary exile, and, if the situation 
improves, they will return to Rome ; while, if the worst comes to the 
worst, they will have recourse to the last expedient, that is, civil 
war. But Decimus is against civil war save as a last resort. 
"Because," he adds, "we have no rallying-point except Sextus Pom- 
peius and Caecilius Bassus, who, I think, will be strengthened by the 
news about Caesar. It will be time enough to have recourse to them 
when we shall know how strong they are. If you and Cassius want 
me to make any agreement for you, I shall do so; for Hirtius 
demands this of me. Answer this as soon as possible, for I think 

shows that Antonius was the power to be reckoned with; and probably when the senate met on the morning 
of the 1 7th, Antonius had not definitely decided whether to let Decimus have his province or not. Antonius 
was an opportunist and was going to make the best arrangement possible for himself. Again, is it likely 
that Antonius who had run away in mortal terror at midday and hid himself would have so far recovered 
his composure by evening as to assume the haughty attitude this letter ascribes to him ? To put this letter, 
indicating as it does that the conspirators had been reduced to desperate straits, on the morning of the i6th 
is to contradict the testimony of Nicolaus 17: rrj re TrpwTj/ ij^epa xal Sevrepa KaTanenS.eyfj.4viav ein tCiv 
KaiVapos <f>i\tav, ttoAAous avToU npocrexei-v, ewet S' oi U tmv vepLOLKiSuiv noKeiav /cArjpouxot, ous eKeivof 
KartoKia-e re koI rats no^eaiv iyKaTea-Tifo-ev, Jikov iraju.7rA7)9ets <os TOU9 irepl AeniSov tov ImrapxTIv kol 
'AvTwi'iov TOi' (TVVvnaTov KaiVapos, ene^Uvai avTov rbi' <l>6vov inria-xvovn.dvov;, crKcSao-Sij^'ai Toii? 
woAAoiis. 



64 DECIMUS JUNIUS BRUTUS ALBINUS 

Hirtius will inform me about these matters before nine o'clock; 
write me where we can meet and where you want me to come. After 
Hirtius' last talk, I have decided to ask that we be permitted to 
remain at Rome with a public guard. I don't think they will grant 
this, for we shall make them unpopular. However, I think I ought 
to demand everything that I consider fair." 

It will be noticed that the sentence, placitum est mihi postulare 
ut liceret nobis Romae esse publico praesidio, also indicates that 
Decimus speaks as a representative of the conspirators as a body. 
Pro Cassio et te, si quid me velitis recipere, recipiam seems to point 
the other way. But the meaning here is : "If you and Cassius 
want me to make any specific agreement involving an obligation 
on your part, I shall do so, for this is what Hirtius demands." In 
other words, Decimus, who has friends among the Caesarians owing 
to his long military service with them, either on his own respon- 
sibility or at the suggestion of his confederates, had left the Capitol 
and gone out into the city to use his influence with his former 
comrades in arms to bring about an agreement between those who 
had slain Caesar, on the one hand, and Antonius and Lepidus, on 
the other. He was probably also to bring all the pressure he could 
to bear upon the members ^^^ of the senate to bring them into line 
with the aims and purposes of the liberatores; and he was, further- 
more, to keep his friends upon the Capitol informed of the attitude 
of the people.^^^ Decimus then must have left the conspirators on 
the night of the 15th after the return of the messengers from 
Antonius. 

Early in the morning of the i6th — or even on the night before — 
Lepidus occupied the Forum with his troops, and at dawn harangued 
the people against the slayers of Caesar.^^^ It was probably early in 
the morning of the i6th, too, that Antonius announced to the peace 
commissioners who had visited him again ^^^ to receive his promised 
answer to those on the Capitol, that all questions raised by the death 
of Caesar would have to be settled by the senate.^^° 

'5' This is to be inferred from the statement of Appian (ii. 125), referring particularly to the night 
of the i6th: nai Se airuiv efleoi/ ava. Tijr vvKTa nacrav es rai riov PovKevTSiv oiKias oi tSjv a.vSpo4'6i'iov 
01X6101, irapaKaKovvTe'; virep avriav koI iinep T^s narplov TroAiTeias. 

"*' Par. i: Qtco in statu simus, cognoscite. Wc get a hint of this also in the expression (par. 2), tanta 
est hominum insolentia et nostri inseclatio , and (par. i) where he says Antonius' statement about the agitation 
of the soldiers and people is false. 

188 Dio jjiiY_ 22. 2; Nic. Dam. 27. 

iSo Cic. Phil. ii. 89. »9° App. ii. 124. 



DECIMUS' PART IN THE ASSASSINATION 65 

Nicolaus ^^^ gives us some idea of the situation on the afternoon 
of the 1 6th — of the Hght in which the various parties viewed the 
death of Caesar and of the activities of the Caesarians. His report, 
condensed, is as follows: When the people saw the troops of 
Lepidus in the city and Antonius assuming a bold front, those who 
had before hesitated now took up arms and flocked to the standards 
of Lepidus and Antonius. Some did this from fear, because they 
did not wish to appear elated at the death of Caesar, and by siding 
with Antonius and Lepidus, they hoped to secure their future safety. 
Messages were sent to those who had received from Caesar bene- 
factions, homes in cities other than Rome, allotments of land, or 
grants of money, to the effect that they were in danger of being 
disturbed in their possessions unless they made a demonstration 
of their strength. The veterans of Caesar were entreated to remem- 
ber their former chieftain and rally to the standard of his friends.^^^ 
Many were influenced by pity and friendship; many found profit 
in revolution, especially when they saw the opposite party not so 
active and strong as they had anticipated."^ It was publicly 
proclaimed that Caesar must be avenged. 

The advocates of a free republic, though pleased at what had 
been done, criticized the liberatores because they had stopped short 
at the death of Caesar and had not made away with others who 
were then under suspicion, and thus made liberty secure. 

There was also the party of the moderates, who placed themselves 
between the opposing factions. They remembered the sudden 
changes of fortune in the time of Sulla, when those who seemed to 
have been destroyed regained their courage and expelled the victors. 
They believed that Caesar, even though dead, would cause much 
trouble to those who had killed him and to their party. For large 
armies under capable leaders were arrayed against them. 

Antonius and his associates, before they decided on a plan of 
action, conferred, through intermediaries, with those who were on 
the Capitol. Meantime trusting in their force of soldiers increased 
by those who had taken up arms, they proceeded to administer the 

'5' Nic. Dam. 27; cf. App. ii. 130. 

'»» These appeals to the veterans and colonists of Caesar had much influence. For Appian (ii. 125), 
after mentioning that Antonius had called a meeting of the senate for the next day (it was then the evening 
of the i6th), says: avTinapedeov Se Kac oi tmi/ KK-qpovx^v ij^efidres, aneLKovvTei; el fx-q tis avTOis ^uAafet 
Tas (cXTjpouxi'as Tas re rj&i) SeSofiei/a? Kox Tiis ivriyyiXix.iva.';. 

''3 Cf. App. ii. 125: ri&y] 8e Kai tcov 6.arS>v 6 KaOaputraTO^ Aews aviOappei, ryjv oKiyoTr^ra rdv 
SeSpaKOTiav TrviSofievoi. 



66 DECIMUS JUNIUS BRUTUS ALBINUS 

government, quelling all disturbances in the city.^^^ First, how- 
ever, they assembled their friends and held a council as to what 
should be their attitude toward the assassins. Lepidus advocated 
making war upon them and avenging the death of Caesar. Hirtius 
favored treating with them and conciliating their friendship. 
Another, in agreement with Lepidus, said that it would be an impiety 
to suffer the death of Caesar to go unpunished, and besides it would 
not be safe for the dictator's friends. For even if at that time the 
assassins were disposed to be peaceable, as soon as they had the 
power they would not stop. Antonius took the view of Hirtius ; he 
thought immunity should be granted to the assassins. Some urged 
that they be sent out of the city under a truce (legatio lib era). ^^^ 
From this narrative, taken in connection with a previous state- 
ment of Nicolaus,^^'' it will be seen that the Caesarians had by the 
evening of the i6th recovered from the consternation with which 
they were stricken by the death of Caesar. The presence of the 
soldiers of Lepidus in the Forum, the gathering of the veterans 
and colonists of Caesar under the standards of Antonius and Lepidus 
— in comparison with the pitifully small force that the conspirators 
could muster on the Capitol — produced a revulsion of feeling among 
the people at large and acted as a damper on those who sympathized 
with what had been done the day before in the Curia Pompeia. The 
situation of the conspirators was precarious. Their handful of 
gladiators was doubtless merely intended to frighten off any rash 
friends of Caesar among the senators or people who might be dis- 
posed to resent with violence the death of the dictator. They had 
not anticipated that they would be confronted by a whole army of 
veterans and recruits under the consul and magister equitum. Still 
less had they expected to be able, with that little band, consisting of 
a few hundred at the most, to overawe the Roman people, including 
the armed legion of Lepidus, and thus force their way into power. 
It is improbable that any such design had suggested itself to them. 
The truth is that they had formed beforehand no plans at all. Nearly 
three months after the Ides of March, Brutus and Cassius, the 
leaders of the conspiracy, were still uncertain what course of action 

""» Appian (ii. 125) states what measures Antonius took for keeping order in the city the night of the 
i6th when he had gotten things well in hand: o 6e A^'Toii'ios ras fi^v apxas eiceAeuo-e wKTOifivKaKeiv rriv 
TTokiv eK Sia(rT>)ju.aTos iv ii.i<T<a TrpOKadTj^ieVas itxrirep iv i^fiepa • (cal ^(rav nvpaX navTaxov Kara to aa-TV, 

i«s Nic. Dam. 27. 

19* Cf. Nic. Dam. 17; vide p. 69, note. 



DECIMUS' PART IN THE ASSASSINATION 67 

to take. They had been letting matters drift as they would ; they 
had taken no aggressive step ; in short, they had done nothing. At 
their conference at Antium, June 8, Cicero ^^"^ told Marcus Brutus 
that all that they could do then was to consult for his (Brutus') 
safety. In their perplexity, Brutus and Cassius, especially the latter, 
bewailed the opportunities that had been lost. Cicero repeated to 
them his old story "^ of what their plan of action should have been: 
"That the senate should have been summoned; the people, already 
burning with enthusiasm, should have been still further aroused; 
the whole government of the state should have been taken in hand." 
After this fruitless conference, in which Cicero had performed the 
duty of giving what poor advice he could at that late hour to these 
hesitating and uncertain leaders, he wrote to Atticus:"^ "In 
truth, I found the ship (of state) going to pieces, or rather already 
in fragments. No plan, no system, no method !" This failure of the 
liheratores to form beforehand any definite plan of action, together 
with their utter lack of aggressiveness after Caesar had been slain, 
is proof, it seems to me, that the desire to grasp power for them- 
selves was not their controlling motive. Besides, had they wished 
to supplant Caesar in his rule, their ambition would probably betray 
itself somewhere in the extant correspondence of Cicero and them- 
selves. They perhaps knew as well as we do that the only justifica^ 
tion for such an act as theirs was a sincere desire to restore the 
ancient liberty. Their lack of foresight and their quixotic belief in 
the patriotism of the Roman people remain the best evidence of 
their singleness of purpose. They had evidently imagined that, 
when the tyrant had been once removed, the people would respond 
almost en masse to the call of liberty, the tyranny would fall by its 
own weight, and the republic would restore itself.^"'' 

If now they were to be saved from the soldiers of Lepidus, their 
preservation depended upon Antonius. Antonius was ambitious, 
and it served his purpose to secure the good-will of the senate, which 
was well disposed toward those who had removed its enemy, Caesar. 
It was to his interest, too, not to permit Lepidus to secure the whip- 
hand in the state. Lepidus commanded the soldiers, and if 
vengeance were to be inflicted on the murderers of Caesar, Lepidus 
would play the leading part therein, and thus obtain for himself the 

»" Att. XV. II. "'* Cf. Alt. xiv. lo. I. "» Att. XV. ii. 3. 

»°° Cf. Alt. xiv. 4. I. Equidem doleo, quod numguam in ulla civitate accidit non una cum libertate 
rempuhlicam'ireciperaiu'm. 



68 DECIMUS JUNIUS BRUTUS ALBINUS 

coveted supremacy. Consequently, in the councils of the Caesarians, 
when Lepidus advocated vengeance, Antonius opposed him. But 
this did not prevent Antonius from assuming the ugly disposition 
toward Decimus Brutus and his associates -'^'^ to which reference is 
made in the letter of Decimus, the substance of which we have 
already given at length. To Hirtius, who acted as intermediary 
between him and Decimus, he purposely exaggerated the excite- 
ment of the people and soldiers, in order to make the obstacles in 
the way of immunity for those who had killed Caesar seem greater 
than they were. He wished to impress them and their friends, who 
constituted a majority of the senate, with the idea that the safety of 
the conspirators was difficult to obtain, and that, if he did obtain it, 
great should be their gratitude to him. Decimus Brutus saw through 
this subterfuge and the essential duplicity of Antonius, probably 
being well aware that the excitement among the soldiers and people 
against himself and his confederates had been diligently fomented 
by Antonius and Lepidus. The killing of Caesar, however, was 
unpopular with the veterans and soldiers of Lepidus, and Decimus 
feared that whatever strength he and his associates had with the 
senate and the people at large would not avail against the menacing 
military force of the niagister equihtm and the consul. Hence his 
demand for a legatio libera — a demand that seems too modest in 
view of subsequent events. But Decimus, both from motives of 
self-preservation and from a desire of peace, was opposed to any 
aggressive action that might result in civil war. Hirtius, after Deci- 
mus had written the main part of his letter, returns to him and 
reports the spirit in which Antonius received the demand for the 
legatio libera. Now Decimus, without having heard from Brutus 
and Cassius in the meantime, grows bolder and, in lieu of his first 
proposition, asks that he and the rest be permitted to remain in 
Rome publico praesidio. Thus they would be safe from the soldiers, 
and their plight would arouse among the people sympathy for 
themselves and hostility toward Antonius and Lepidus. 

Early on this same morning on which Decimus wrote to Marcus 
Brutus and Cassius, the senate assembled at the call of Antonius 
in the Temple of Tellus.^"^ All the approaches to the temple were 

"°i Fam. xi. i. i. 

»°" This unusual meeting-place, near his own residence in the Carinae, Antonius chose out of considera- 
ation for his own safety, says Appian. But it was probably not so much from fear of physical harm at 



DECIMUS' PART IN THE ASSASSINATION 69 

guarded by armed veterans under the orders of the consul.^*'^ After 
much discussion and many proposals, for the most part favorable to 
the Hberatores,^^'^ on the motion of Cicero, supported by Antonius and 
L. Munatius Plancus,^"" amnesty was voted to those who had had a 
part in killing Caesar.^^*^ Then a senatus consultum confirming the 
acts of Caesar, pads causa, was passed.^*^'^ Before the senate had 
come to any decision, Marcus Brutus to an assembly of the people 
and the veterans on the Capitol, in response to the clamors of the 
latter, promised that he and his confederates would not invalidate 
the acts of Caesar. The assassins also distributed handbills in the 
Forum announcing that Caesar's grants of land, etc., should remain 
in force.^°® And so, in addition to the other senatus consulta, a 
special measure in favor of the veterans was passed ratifying the 
allotment of land that Caesar had given them.^o*^ The senatus con- 
sultum confirming the validity of Caesar's acts was then made a lex 
by a vote of the people in the comitia.^^^ The men on the Capitol 
would not come down until Antonius and Lepidus had given them 
their sons as hostages. ^^^ A contio was held in the Forum, and 
when the consuls wished to speak they were not permitted by the 
people until they had publicly shaken hands with the leaders of the 
conspiracy in token of reconciliation.^^^ That night Marcus Brutus 
was entertained by Lepidus, Cassius by Antonius,^^^ and the rest 
received invitations from their respective friends or relatives.^^* 

Next day the senate reassembled and on the motion of L. Piso 
voted that the will of Caesar be opened and read.^^^ It was also 
voted that he be given a public funeral. These proposals were 
opposed by some of the conspirators and their friends, but Marcus 

he hands of the conspirators on the Capitol that he did not choose the Cttria lulia for a meeting-place. 
On the one hand, he feared more the conspirators' influence in the senate, and on the other, he did not 
wish the meeting held in such close proximity to the soldiers of Lepidus who were encamped in the Forum. 
Vide. Cic. Phil. i. 31, ii. 8q; Att. xvi. 14. i; App. ii. 126; Die xliv. 22.3, xlvi. 28. 3. 

»°3 Phil. ii. 89; Att. xiv. 14. 2. '°* App. ii. 127, 128; Dio xKv. 22. 3. 

'OS Phil. i. I, 31; Veil. ii. 58. 4; Plut. Brut. 19; Phil. ii. 89; Dio. xliv. 28. 3. 

"* Cic, loc. cii.; Veil. loc. cit.; Plut. Brut. loc. cit., Ant. 14; App. ii. 135; Dio xliv. 34. i. 

'°^ Cic. Att. xvi. 14. i; Phil. ii. 100; xiii. 10; App. ii. 135; Phil. i. 2, 16, etc., etc. Vide. Drumann 
(Groebe), I, p. 68; Lange, III, p. 488; Schmidt, Die letzten Kampfe, p. 691. 

=°8 Dio xliv. 34; cf. App. ii. 141; Alt. xv. la. 2, 3. 2. 

"9 App. B. C. ii. 135; Att. xiv. 14. 2; Phil. i. 6. Cf. Groebe, De legibus anni, 710, p. 44. 

"" Groebe, loc. cit., and Drumann {Anhang), I, p. 416- Was this lex passed on the 17th or later ? 

'" Dio xliv. 34. 6; App. ii. 142; Plut. Brut. 19. 

=■" Cic. Phil. i. 32; App. ii. 142. "■* Plut. Brut. 19. 

»i3Dio xliv. 34. 7; Plut. Ant. 14, Brut. 19. "s Plut. Brut. 20; cf. App. ii. 136; Suet. lul. 83. 



yo DECIMUS JUNIUS BRUTUS ALBINUS 

Brutus gave them his sanction.-^" It was probably also on this day 
that the will was opened and read in the house of Antonius. The 
publication of Caesar's will, in which the meanest citizen of Rome 
was generously remembered, Caesar's spectacular funeral, and the 
inflammatory laudatio funebris of Antonius, stirred the people to 
such a pitch of anger against the liberatores that the}" endeavored to 
set fire to their houses, whither they had fled for refuge. But the 
liberatores repelled the attacks of the mob by force of arms.^^'^ 

3i6 piut. Brut. 20; Cic. Alt. xiv. 10. i, 14. 3. Groebe, following Appian (136), places these senatus 
constdta on the 17th. But Appian evidently interchanged the time of the contio and the descent of the 
liberatores from the Capitol, which occurred according to Cicero {Phil. i. 32) on the 17th, with that of the 
meeting of the senate to discuss Caesar's will and funeral. The chronology of Plutarch, though usually 
untrustworthy, seems in this case to be in harmony with that of Cicero. Judging from the length of the 
discussion which Appian represents as having taken place on the 17th, it is hardly probable that the senate 
disposed of so much business on that day as Groebe, following Lange and Drumann, would have us believe. 

Again, Groebe thinks that there was a special senatus consultum on the i8th, confirming Caesar's 
grant of provinces to the liberatores. Such action would have been unnecessary and meaningless after the 
general measures confirming all the acts of Caesar. Schmidt (Die letzten Kampfe, p. 691) has shown that 
there is no authority for assuming such a senatus consultum. 

"^ The funeral of Caesar occurred on the 20th or 21st. The maximum interval of seven days 
allowed by the Romans between the death and burial expired on the 21st. The meetings of the senate on 
the 17th and i8th and the holiday on the igth (Quinquatrus) excluded any one of those days. Hence the 
funeralmust have taken place on the 20th or 21st. Cf. Herodian iv. 2. 4; Columella ii. 21 (22). s; Cic. 
Phil. ii. gi, Att. xiv. 10. i, 11. i, xv. 20. 2; App. ii. 147, 148; iii. i, 2; Dio xliv. 35-52; Suet. lul. 84. 85; 
Plut. Caes. 68, Brut. 20, Ant. 14; Liv. Epit. 116. The house of L. Bellienus was actually burned to the 
ground. 



Ill 

DECIMUS' ADMINISTRATION OF CISALPINE GAUL 
AND THE WAR WITH ANTONIUS 

The rage and excitement of the populace against the con- 
spirators that succeeded the obsequies of Caesar had probably sub- 
sided when Decimus Brutus left the city for Cisalpine Gaul, his 
province. The date of his arrival there was not later than the 15th ^ 
of April. Allowing a reasonable time for himself and retinue of 
gladiators ^ to make the journey, the date of his departure from 
Rome can be fixed as not later than the 9th. He probably set out 
during that interval of comparative tranquillity ^ which preceded the 
outbreak against the conspirators and their friends instigated by the 
Pseudo-Marius. The fact that Decimus had reached his province 
and his legions seems to have aroused unreasonable hopes in the 
breast of Cicero.* In a letter written about two months later, Cicero 
tells us that Marcus Brutus and Cassius found fault with Decimus 
for the opportunities he had lost.^ The republicans in Italy probably 
wished Decimus to march toward Rome with his army, check 
Antonius' usurpations, and secure their own safety. But as Gardt- 
hausen ® has pointed out, such a step would have been, not only 
illegal, but also impracticable. Decimus was in favor of civil war 
only as a last resort — in self-defense.'^ Then, too, his military 
strength was not sufficient to cope with that of Antonius. He had 
but two legions,* and only one of these was made up of veterans.^ 

' The news of this reached Rome on the 19th {Alt. xiv. 13. i, 2). 

' App. iii. 49. 

3 Att. xiv. 2. 1, written on the 8th and referring to conditions' in the city on the 7th. Everything was 
quiet in the city on the 8th also, as we learn from Att. xiv. 3. i: Tranqu-illae tuae quidem litlerae. But on 

the 9th {Ait. xiv. 4. i, written on the loth) trouble seems to be brewing again {Tument negotia Hor- 

ribile est quae loquantur, quae minitentur). By the nth it had assumed serious proportions {Att. xiv. 5. 
I, 6. I, 7. i). But on thei3th probably (not later), as we learn from Att. xiv. 8. i (April 15), the uprising 
was crushed by the summary execution of the Pseudo-Marius {De Mario probe, etsi doleoL. Crassinepoiem). 
For an extended account of the Pseudo-Marius vide Nic. Dam. 14; App. iii. 2. 3. 

* Att. xiv. 13. 2: in quo spent maximam video. App. iii. 6. 

s Att. XV. II. 2 (Jime 8): amissas occasiones Decimumque graviter accusabant. 

* Augustus u. seine Zeit, I, p. 59. ' Fam. ii. i. 3. 

* Nic. Dam. 28; Appian (iii. 6) says that he had three legions, but this statement refers to a later 
time as is shown in iii. 49, where Appian informs us that one of these legions had been recently levied after 
Decimus' arrival in Cisalpine Gaul. 

9 Fam. X. 24. 3. 

71 



72 DECIMUS JUNIUS BRUTUS ALBINUS 

He probably did not obtain an enthusiastic reception in his new 
province — a province that had especial reasons for being attached to 
Caesar. It doubtless required no little time and tact on the part of 
Decimus to make sure of the loyalty to himself of these two legions 
which had been in the pay of Caesar. 

That which suggested the complaint of Marcus Brutus and Cas- 
sius against the inactivity of Decimus was probably the transfer of 
Cisalpine Gaul from Decimus to Antonius by the so-called lex 
Antonia Cornelia de permutatione provincianim.^^ We have already 
seen that Antonius immediately after the death of Caesar had 
expressed his unwillingness that Decimus should have Cisalpine 
Gaul.^^ Toward the latter part of April the report was current in 
Rome that on June i Antonius would lay a motion before the senate 
in regard to the provinces, to the effect that he himself should have 
the Gauls, and that the tenure of himself and Dolabella should be 
extended.^- About a month later Cicero writes, with reference to 
this rumor, that Antonius will disregard the senate on June i and 
effect his objects through the agency of a popular assembly. He 
thinks that war is in prospect, if an effort be made to deprive Deci- 
mus Brutus of his province.^^ About the first of June a lex 
tribunicia giving Antonius and Dolabella the pro-consular imperiuni 
for six years was passed contra auspicia and without the formal pro- 
mulgatio trinum nundinum}^ Most authorities ^^ have put the lex 
de permutatione provinciarum somewhat later than the lex tribunicia 
above mentioned. But Schmidt has shown by citations from Appian, 
Nicolaus, and Cassius Dio that the lex de permutatione contained a 
provision conferring the command of the Macedonian legions upon 
Antonius.^'' Already in the latter part of June and the early part of 
July there were persistent rumors of the arrival of these legions at 
Brundisium.^'^ These rumors arose as a result of the passage of 
the lex de permutatione provinciarum. Hence it is safe to place that 
law in the early part of June and to connect it with the lex tribunicia 

'° Liv. Epit. 117. " Fam. xi. i. 1. '^ Att. xiv. 14. 4. '3 Att. xv. 4. i, 5. 3, 10. i. 

^* Phil. V. 7, i. 6, ii. 108, 109. For the date cf. Ait. xv. 11. 4 (June 8), in which Cicero says that 
Dolabella, on the 3d, had chosen him legatus for a period of five years. Dolabella chose Cicero legatus 
under the lex tribunicia. Therefore that lex was passed not later than the 3d. That the imperium of 
Dolabella and Antonius was to begin in 44 has been established by Schwartz {Hermes, 1898, pp. 1.88, 189). 

»s Lange (III, pp. 502,503) and Schmidt {Die le/zten Kampfe, p. 718) put it between the Ides of June 
and July i; Groebe, after June 15. 

'* Cf. Schmidt, loc. cit., pp. 717 f., and App. iii. 55; Nic. Dam. 30; Dio xlvi. 23. 4, 24. 2, 25. 2; xlv 
25. i; xlv. 20. 3, 4. Cf. also Groebe, De legibus anni 710, pp. 11 f. 

" Att. XV. 21. 3 (June 21V, xvi. 5. 3 (July 9), 4. 4; etc. 



DECIMUS' ADMINISTRATION OF CISALPINE GAUL 73 

de provinciis consularibus. It gave Antonius both Gauls (excluding 
Narbonensis, then governed by Plancus) ^^ for six years, including 
the year 44.^" The patrons of this law were Antonius and Dola- 
bella,-° and Livy informs us that its adoption was secured by 
violence. ^^ 

The Macedonian legions thus given to Antonius were not brought 
to Italy until the middle of October, as Schmidt and Schwartz have 
shown.^^ Three of them marched along the Adriatic coast toward 
Gaul ; -^ one probably proceeded with Antonius to the neighborhood 
of Rome and thence to the north; and the fifth, under the leader- 
ship of L. Antonius, did not reach Cisalpine Gaul until after the 
siege of Mutina had begun.^* 

The only information we get concerning the movements of 
Decimus Brutus from his arrival in Cisalpine Gaul, in April, until 
September is derived from a letter ^^ of his to Cicero, the date of 
which cannot be precisely determined, but must in all probability 
fall in the month of September.^*^ Decimus, as we learn from this 
letter, spent the intervening months in an effort to secure the loyalty 
of his troops. For this purpose he had conducted a summer cam- 
paign against the Inalpini who lived in modern Piedmont and 
Savoy. His efforts had been crowned with success. The soldiers 
had learned to appreciate his liberality in the distribution of booty 
and his courage. In the war with these intrepid people he had 
captured many villages and destroyed many. His soldiers had given 
him the customary recognition of his success by saluting him as 
Imperator. He had sent dispatches to the senate in the hope of 
obtaining its confirmation of his title and possibly the additional 
honor of a supplicatio. He asks Cicero's support in the senate on 
the ground that, if he secures this mark of recognition from that 
body, he will be stronger in his province and with his troops, and 
thus be of greater service to the party of the liheratores. 

i' Phil. I. 8; vii. 2; viii. 27. 

'9 In violation of the lex lulia de provinciis of 46, in that it gave the consuls provinces for a longer 
time than two years. 

'"Phil. iii. 9; i. 25, 26. =' Liv. Epit. 117. Cf. Phil. ii. 6; i. 25. 

»2 Schmidt, loc. cit., pp. 720, 721; Schwartz, loc. cit., p. 190; cf. Fam. xii. 23. 2; Alt. xv. 13. 2. 

=3 Alt. xvi. 8. 2. 

'* Phil. iii. 31.; App. iii. 45, 46; and infra, p. 84, n. 51. "s Fam. xi. 4. 

"* Cf . Nake, Der Briefwechsel zwischen Cicero u. Decimus Brutus, p. 5; Stemkopf , Philologus, LX, 
pp. 303, 304. The determining points are : (i) Decimus writes while Cicero is still in Rome (Cicero left 
Rome between the 9th and 20th of October Fam. xii. 23. 2 and Alt. xv. 13. i). (2) Cicero answers in 
Fam. xi. 6. i before he leaves the city. 



74 DECIMUS JUNIUS BRUTUS ALBINUS 

The reply to this letter of Decimus is, as Sternkopf has shown, 
found in Ad fam. xi. 6, paragraph i,-"^ xi. 6 being made up of two 
distinct letters. Cicero's letter, like that of Decimus, is very brief. 
Its tone of polite formality is such as Cicero would naturally use 
toward one who had not been among his intimate friends.^^ He 
did not give Decimus any assurance that he would do the definite 
thing requested of him, for the reason that at this time he had not 
the privilege of free expression in the senate, as he informs us in a 
similar letter ^^ to Plancus written about the same time. He prob- 
ably expected Lupus to explain to Decimus the exact situation at 
Rome. 

Decimus Brutus, as we learn from this letter, was already in 
September encamped at Mutina, and Appian's statement ^'^ that he 
was still in the open country when Antonius entered Cisalpine 
Gaul — a statement absurd on its face — is shown to be false. 

After Antonius left Rome, October 9,^^ to meet the Macedonian 
legions at Brundisium, his friends accused and caused to be con- 
demned a slave named Myrtilus for attempting the life of the consul. 
They alleged that Myrtilus had been prompted by a bribe from Deci- 
mus Brutus.^- Antonius himself was probably responsible for this 
false charge against Decimus, his object being to make him unpopu- 
lar with the people and thereby lessen the odium that would attend 
his own projected invasion of Cisalpine Gaul. 

During the absence of Antonius, Octavianus had been busy col- 
lecting, by means of large donations, an army of veterans in 

=' Sternkopf {Philologus, LX, pp. 282 ff.) by a convincing argument shows that the course of the 
first correspondence between Cicero and Decimus is as follows: 

Brutus writes F. xi. 4, request for j!«/>/)/Jca/io— September. 

Lupus brings this letter in six days from Mutina to Rome — September. 

Cicero answers in xi. 6a — September or beginning of October. 

Cicero leaves Rome — -middle of October. | 

Lupus comes to Rome with a new letter of Brutus, not preserved — November. 

He sends this letter to Cicero, who is out of the city, and a few days after returns to Brutus without 
an answer. 

Cicero returns to Rome — December p. 

Cicero writes xi. 5, probably at once — December 9. 

Lupus comes again to Rome and confers with Cicero. Cicero writes xi. 7 — middle of December 
(12?). 

A courier brings the edict of Brutus; meeting of the senate; Cicero writes xi. 66 — December 20. 

Vide also Stemkopf's article in Hermes, XL (1905), pp. 529 ff. 

^* Cf. App., iii. 62: Kal iieKixov ^a.i<Ta.pi. fiiv oura <jiC\ov e/ixt'o-ei; which, however, is probably an 
exaggeration of Appian. 

'9 Fam. X. 2. I. 31 Fam. xiii. 23. 2. 

3° App. iii. 49. 3a ^/^. XV. 13. 6, xvi. 11. 6. 



DECIMUS' ADMINISTRATION OF CISALPINE GAUL 75 

Campania.^'* He had even sent his emissaries to anticipate the 
arrival of Antonius at Brundisium, and win over the Macedonian 
legions with money and liberal promises, as well as by means of 
circulars derogatory to the consul.^* These measures had the 
desired result, and the disaffection toward Antonius was increased 
by his own niggardliness and brutal acts of discipline.^^ Octavianus 
placed himself under the guidance of Cicero and professed a desire 
to conduct his opposition to Antonius by and with the advice of the 
senate.^^ He was writing frequent letters to Cicero,^^ he had 
demanded a secret conference with him,^^ and had sent a special 
messenger to ask him whether he should proceed to Rome with his 
three thousand veterans, or should hold Capua and block the way 
of Antonius who was marching toward Rome with the legio Alauda^ 
rum, or should go to meet the three Macedonian legions which were 
advancing along the Adriatic Sea toward Cisalpine Gaul. Cicero 
urged him to proceed to Rome. He was of the opinion that 
Octavianus, if he created confidence, would have the support of 
the Optimate party ,^^ and, if his forces were strong, he could have 
(Decimus) Brutus on his side.*** Octavianus acted on the advice of 
Cicero ; proceeded to Rome ; addressed an assembly of the people 
before the Temple of Castor*^ and Pollux; and reminded them of 
Caesar and of the wrongs he himself had suffered at the hands of 
Antonius, on account of which he had collected the force of veterans 
as a guard. He also declared his readiness in everything to serve 
and obey his country. Some of the veterans, learning his intention 
against Antonius, changed their minds and under various pretexts 
returned to their homes. Octavianus proceeded to the neighborhood 
of Ravenna, where he enlisted many new recruits and established 
his headquarters at Arretium.*^ 

About the middle of November Antonius returned to Rome, 
leaving the main body of his troops at Tibur, but bringing a con- 

33 AU. xvi. 8. I, 2. (par. i quingenos denarios dat); Alt. xvi. 11. 6.; Res gestae Divi Aiigusti, i. i. Liv. 
Epit. 117; Dio. xlv. 12. 2. 

3* App. iii. 43, 44; Dio xlv. 12. i. 

35 Phil. iii. 4, V. 22, iii. 10, 30, xii. 12, xiii. 18; App. iii. 43; cf. Alt. xvi. 8. 2; Dio xlv. 13. i, 2; 3^. 3. 

3^ Att. xvi. 9. 37 Att. xvi. 8. I, 9. I, II, 6. 

38 ^«. xvi. 8. I. i9 Att. .xvi. 8. 2. *° Att. xvi. 9. 

*' In Att. xvi. 15. 3, Cicero writes of this contio. He does not like the speech of Octavianus and is 
not ready to declare himself for him till he learns his attitude toward Casca's candidacy for the tribunate 
Casca was one of the slayers of Caesar. 

1" App. iii. 41. 42; Dio. xlv. 12. 4 S. For Octavianus' professed desire to obey the senate vid. 
App. iii. 48. 



76 DECIMUS JUNIUS BRUTUS ALBINUS 

siderable number into the city to serve as his personal guard and 
to overawe the senate and the people.*^ He ordered a meeting of 
the senate for November 24, to lay before that body the conduct of 
Octavianus, but he himself failed to attend and adjourned the sitting 
until November 28.'*'* Meantime to Tibur, whither he had returned, 
a number of knights, senators, and plebeians repaired and swore to 
be loyal to him.*^ On November 28 Antonius was again in Rome, 
having called a meeting of the senate for that day on the Capitol.*^ 
He had prepared a motion to restrain Octavianus,*^ but it seems that 
he did not lay it before the house. While the senate was in session 
he received news that the fourth legion, under the quaestor, L. 
Egnatuleius, had deserted his standard., The Martian legion, under 
D. Carfulenus, had already abandoned him, turned from its north- 
ward march along the east coast toward the west, and encamped at 
Alba near Rome ready to unite with Octavianus. The fourth legion 
had now joined the Martian at Alba.*^ At the news of this, Antonius 
hastily caused the praetorian provinces not yet assigned to be dis- 
tributed by lot,*^ left the city by night for Tibur, and hurried 
thence with his "mutilated army" to Cisalpine Gaul.^*' At 
Ariminum he could still count on four veteran legions, the legio 
Alaudarum, two Macedonian legions (H and XXXV), and another 
Macedonian legion, which, under the leadership of Lucius Antonius, 
was on its way to join him.^^ In addition to these, he had his 
bodyguard, auxiliary troops, and recruits.^- 

Decimus Brutus meantime had received letters from members 
of the senate urging him to keep a strong hold on his province, and to 
collect additional men and money to resist Antonius.^^ To this effect 
Cicero wrote on his return to Rome, December 9.^* In this letter 
written in reply to one from Decimus, now lost, which he had 
received while absent from Rome, Cicero says : Si enim iste pro- 

« App. iii. 45, so, 52; Phil. xiii. 19. ^'^ Phil. iii. 19, 20, 21. 

*s App. iii. 46; Phil. xiii. 19: Rediil ad mililes; ibi pesiifera ilia Tiburi contio; Dio xlv. 13. 5. 

•»' Phil. iii. 20; quod in iemplum ipse nescio qua per Gallorum cuniculum ascendit. 

•»' Phil. xiii. 19: parata de circumscribendo adulescente sententia consitlaris. 

*' Phil. xiii. 19; iii. 7; Dio xlv. 13. 3, 4. 

*« PM"/. iii. 24. 5° Non. Marcell. 539. 3; Phil. xiii. 20; iii. 31. 

5' App. iii. 46; Phil. iii. 31. Cf. Schwartz, p. 227, n. 4. What I have said above is in accordance 
with the testimony of Appian. But Groebe (Drumann, I, pp. 434, 440) thinks that one of the five Mace- 
donian legions that fell to Antonius in the arrangement between him and Dolabella was left in Macedonia , 
and that this legion is the one referred to in Phil. x. 13: Legio, quam L. Piso ducebat legafus Antoni, 
Ciceroni se filio meo tradidit. At any rate, Antonius had in aU six legions at Mutina {Phil. viii. 25). 

5' App., loc. cit. S3 App. iii. 27; cf. 32, 33. i* Fam. xi. 5. 



DECIMUS' ADMINISTRATION OF CISALPINE GAUL 77 

vinciam nactus erit, cui quidem ego semper amicus fui, ante qua/m 
ilium intellexi non modo aperte sed etiam lib enter cum re p. helium 
gerere, spem reliquam nullam video salutisJ"^ Cicero also renews 
his assurance that he will support in the senate Decimus' claims to 
honor and distinction.^® 

Decimus Brutus had not been idle. After his campaign with 
the Inalpini he had raised a legion of recruits,^^ and thus shown his 
intention of resisting the claims of Antonius to his province.^^ As 
soon as he learned that Antonius had left Rome and was hurrying 
with his army toward Cisalpine Gaul, he probably wrote to Cicero 
urging him to secure the passage of a senatus consultum confirming 
his right to his province and authorizing him to hold it by force of 
arms.^^ It was to this letter, now lost, that Cicero replied in Fam. 
xi. 7,*"^ written not later than December 12. Cicero urges Decimus 
not to wait for the authorization of the senate in preserving the 
liberty and safety of the Roman people — for the senate is not yet 
free to deliberate. He entreats Decimus not to condemn his act on 
the Ides of March. The freeing of his country then was all the 
more glorious because it was done nullo publico consilio. He cites 
the example of the young Caesar who had espoused the public 

ss xi. 5. 3. 5' Fam. xi. 5. 3. s' App. iii. 49; Phil. v. 36. ss Pam. xi. 7. 3. 

59 This seems a fairinference from Foot. xi. 7.2: Caput autem est hoc .... ut ne in libertate et saliUe 
populi Romani conservanda auctoritatem senatus exspectes nondum liberi. This inference is also supported 
by the testimony of Appian (iii. 49): 'A.vto}vlov S' avroj iTpo0ecriJ.iav opt^ovros ^e9' rji' tos TroAen-io) 
XpT^oerat, ft,aKpoTipav 6 AeK/«.os iniXevev bpi^fiv eavTtf, fj-r] 6a<x<rov yevOLTO rrj Pov\rj TroAejiios; and, 
Voluntas senatus pro auctoritate haberi debet, cum auctoritas impeditur metu; and also ita animatus 
debes esse, non ut nihil facias nisi iussus sed, etc. 

'= That Fam. xi. 7 was written before December 20 has been established both by Ruete (p. 38) and, 
at greater length, by Sternkopf (Philologtis, LX, pp. 282 ff.). The considerations presented by them may 
be briefly summarized as follows: 

(i) It would have been idle for Cicero to urge Brutus to hold his province, private cofisilio, when 
the latter's edict announcing his intention to do that very thing was already known in Rome. 

(2) On or after December 20, Cicero could not have written, Caput autem est, hoc . . . . ut ne in 
libertate et salute populi Romani conservanda auctoritatem senatus nondum liberi; and Voluntas senatus pro 
auctoritate haberi, cum auctoritas impeditur metu, and ita animatus debes esse, non ut nihil facias nisi iussus, 

sed, etc.; for afterward Cicero {Phil. v. 28) says a. d. XII Kal. Jan quod ille {D. Brutus) bellum 

privato consilio susceperat, id vos auctoritate publica comprobastis. Cf. Phil. iv. 8. 

(3) Again, the expression nondum liber applied to the senate in this letter was no longer true on 
December 20, as we learn from Fam. x. 28. i : Ut enim primum post Antoni foedissimum discessum senatus 
haberi libere potuit, and from Phil. iii. s (spoken December 20) mmc enim primum ita convenimus, ut 
illius {Octaviani) benejicio possemus ea, quae sentiremus, libere dicere. Nor, on the other hand, could this 
letter have been written on the igth, as Tyrell and Purser think. For, if we assume, as T. and P. do, 
that Fam. xi. 6. i (which, following Sternkopf, I think is a separate letter by itself) were -WTitten Decem- 
ber 20, it is inconceivable that Cicero should have had a conference with Lupus and others at his house on 
the morning after the arrival of Lupus, and should liave written Decimus about that conference, mention- 
ing the fact that it had been called at the instance of Lupus, and then in a subsequent letter to Decimus 
{Fam. xi. 6. i), on the evening of the following day, should have taken pains to announce the arrival of 
Lupus in Rome. Hence Fam. xi. 7 was probably written several days before December 20. 



78 DECIMUS JUNIUS BRUTUS ALBINUS 

cause privato consilio, and of the legions that had revolted from 
the consul and by their act declared him a public enemy. He should 
accept the will of the senate as authorization so long as fear kept it 
from declaring itself. Finally, he had twice committed himself, 
first on the Ides of March and again, recently, by the raising of a 
new army and new forces. He should do that which he knew would 
be approved and not wait for the senate's bidding. 

When Cicero wrote this spirited letter he probably had in 
mind Brutus' conservatism and his regard for constitutional forms 
— respect for which, paradoxical as it may seem, had drawn him 
into the plot against Caesar, and now justified him in resisting 
Antonius. For the plehiscitum and the lex of June which had 
been voted per vim in favor of Antonius and Dolabella, whereby 
Antonius obtained the imperiiim in the Gauls, and Dolabella in 
Syria, for six years beginning with 44, while they did not abrogate 
the lex Antonia de actis Caesaris, yet violated it, and therefore 
marked the beginning of the revolution that culminated in the bloody 
Second Triumvirate. Accordingly, when Decimus Brutus refused 
to recognize the imperium maius of Antonius in Cisalpine Gaul, it 
was, strictly speaking, a counter-revolutionary movement and not, 
as Scharwtz ^^ maintains, the continuation of the revolution inau- 
gurated by the young Caesar. 

Antonius probably on his arrival at Ariminum demanded of 
Decimus the surrender of his province.^^ Decimus refused and 
issued an edict saying, se provinciam retenturum in senatus popu- 
lique Roniani potestate.^^ The date of this edict was probably 
December 15, since it was published in Rome on the morning of the 
20th.^* For that day the tribunes had called a meeting of the senate 
to propose measures for the safety of the consuls-elect and of the 
senate on January i.''^ Cicero had determined not to be present at 
the sitting, but, when he heard of the bold stand Decimus had taken, 
he resolved not to miss the opportunity of urging the senate to place 

*' Hermes, 1898, p. 194, n. s- Schwartz says: " Sein einziges Argument ist. dass das Gesetz und das 
Plebiscit, auf welchen es bei-uht, gegen das S.C.iiber die acta Caesaris verstiessen und per vim rogirt seien.'' 
Schwartz seems to have overlooked or disregarded the lex de actis Caesaris confirmandis, expressly men- 
tioned by Cicero {Phil. v. 10). 

'" App. iii. 49. That Antonius bade Decimus to go to Macedonia, as Appian says, is, of course, 
false 

*3 Phil. iii. 8. It is impossible to say whether or not Cicero's letter ad Fam. xi. 7 had reached Deci- 
mus before he issued his edict. 

^* Fam. xi. 6. 2; of. Fam. xi. 6. i. ^s Fam. xi. 6. 2; Phil. iii. 13, 25. 



DECIMUS' ADMINISTRATION OF CISALPINE GAUL 79 

the stamp of approval upon it. A full senate assembled when it 
became known that Cicero had gone to the curia.^^ The orator 
delivered his third Philippic, in which he justified the conduct of 
the two legions which had deserted Antonius, and the action of 
Octavianus and Decimus Brutus, by the argument that Antonius 
was virtually no longer consul." The senate adopted all of the 
motions that Cicero advocated.«« These were : (i) That the consuls- 
elect should provide that the senate might convene in safety on 
January i. (2) That it was the opinion of the senate that Decimus 
Brutus by his edict deserved well of the state, since he was defend- 
ing the authority of the senate and the liberty and majesty of the 
Roman people.«» (3) That, in keeping the province of Gallia 
Citerior and its army under the control of the senate, Decimus 
Brutus, his army, the municipia, and the colonies of the province of 
Gaul had acted and were acting properly, regularly, and in accord- 
and with the welfare of the state.^" (4) That it was the decision 
of the senate that Decimus Brutus, Lucius Plancus, and others who 
held provinces should retain them, in accordance with the lex Mia, 
until by a senatus consulhim their successors should be appointed, 
and that they should see to it that those provinces and their armies 
continued to obey the senate and Roman people and to defend the 
republic.'^^ (5) That the consuls-elect should as soon as possible lay 
before the senate the matter of honors and rewards for C. Caesar, 
the legio Martia, and the legio IV, because of their services to the 
commonwealth.'^^ 

After the meeting of the senate Cicero delivered to a large 
assembly of the people an impassioned speech (the fourth Philippic), 
in which he declared that, while Antonius had not been designated 
by the senate a public enemy in word, he had already been so 
adjudged in fact.'^^ After this contio, late in the day, probably, 
Cicero wrote to Decimus, paragraphs 2 and 3 of Fam. xi. 6, in 
which he speaks of Decimus' edict and of his godlike services to the 
state, of the meeting of the senate and the contio, and at the 
end he gives Decimus assurance of zealous support in all things that 
pertain to his official position. 

66 Fam. xi. 6. 2, 3; xii. 22. 3. '° Phil. iv. 9; v. 28; x. 23. 

61 Phil. iii. 6, 12, 14. " -f «'"• ™- 22. 3; xii. 25. 2. 

68 Sternkopf, pp. 284 ff.; Phil. iii. 37 «• " PhU- iv. 2-6, 3. 4, 28; x. 23. 

60 Phil. iv. 8, V. 28. " Phil- iv. i. 



8o DECIMUS JUNIUS BRUTUS ALBINUS 

We have already noted the arrival of Decimus at Mutina. On 
learning- of the approach of Antonius, he hastily collected supplies, 
slaughtered and salted cattle, and closed the gates of the town, antici- 
pating a protracted siege. With his force of three legions (only 
one of which had seen much service) and a handful of gladiators 
he did not venture to meet Antonius in the open field/* Besides, 
he probably preferred to have Antonius assume the offensive, so 
that it might be made clear that he was defending his province 
against the consul who was seeking unlawfully to wrest it from 
him. Antonius probably appeared before the walls of the city 
about December 20, and began the construction of a moat and trench 
around the place.^^ 

A meeting of the senate was held on January i under the new 
consuls, Aulus Hirtius and Gains Vibius Pansa. The consuls laid 
before the senate the state of the republic and the matter of granting 
rewards to the young Caesar and to the two legions that had 
deserted Antonius.'^'' Other consulares were called upon for their 
opinion before Cicero.'^^ Servius Sulpicius Rufus, the first, pro- 
posed that commissioners be sent to Antonius to bring about peace 
if possible, between him and the senate.^^ Cicero in his fifth Philip- 
pic opposed the motion of Sulpicius, and after a bitter invective 
against Antonius moved: (i) That a tumultus be decreed, a 
iustitiiim proclaimed, the saga be put on, and that exemption from 
service be removed and levies be held in all Italy except Gaul. (2) 
That the senatus consultum ultimum be adopted,'^^ and that it be 
decreed that those who were in the army of Antonius, if they left it 
before February i, should be pardoned. (3) That Decimus Brutus 
be praised for retaining the province of Gaul in obedience to the 
senate and Roman people, and for having raised so large an army 
with the aid of the municipia and the colonies of Gaul.^" (4) That 
the senate and people express their confidence in M. Lepidus for 
his loyal services to the state, and that a gilded equestrian statue 
be erected to him on the rostra, or wherever else in the Forum he 
might wish it.^^ (5) That Gaius Caesar be given the rank of a 

'* App. B. C. iii. 49. 

's Phil. V. 24. Antonius had not reached Mutina on the isth, and the nevfs of his having laid siege 
to the place was in Rome before January i, 43. App. iii. 49. 

'' Lange, iii. p. 520; Phil. v. 28. 

" Phil. V. 5; Lange (III, p. 522) names Q. Fufius Calenus, P. Servilius Isauricus. and Servius Sul- 
picius Rufus. 

1^ Phil. V. i; ix. 4. 9. t> Phil. v. 31, 34. ^^ Phil. v. 36. ^^ Phil. v. 40, 41. 



DECIMUS' ADMINISTRATION OF CISALPINE GAUL 8 1 

propraetor, that he be voted into the senate inter praetorios^ ^nd 
that as a candidate for the magistracy he should be in the position 
of those who had held the quaestorship for the previous year (44) • 
(6) That L. Egnatuleius, the commander of the legio IV, be allowed 
to sue for, take, and hold the magistracies three years before the 
legal time • '' that lands be granted to the veterans who had deserted 
Antonius;'that exemption from military service, except in case of a 
Gallic or Italian tumultus, be voted to them and their children; 
and that the two legions which had deserted Antonius be given their 
discharge at the end of the war and be paid the money promised 
them by C. Caesar.^* 

All these motions, save the first two, in regard to the tumultus 
and the senatus consultmn ultimum, were adopted on January 3. The 
one in regard to the young Caesar, however, was modified so that he 
was given the privilege of expressing his opinion in the senate 
among the consulares.^' To the other honors voted him were 
added on the motion of his stepfather, L. Marcius Philippus, an 
equestrian statue.- On the 4^W' owing to the influence of the 
friends and relatives of Antonius and the consulares other than 
Cicero, the senate, against the latter's earnest protest, voted to 
send ambassadors to Antonius with instructions that he should 
abstain from attacking the consul designate, from besieging Mutina, 
from devastating the province, and from holding levies, and that he 
should submit to the senate and people.«« The senate further 
demanded that he should withdraw with his army from Cisalpine 
Gaul across the Rubicon, but that he should not bring it within two 
hundred Roman miles of the city.«^ The ambassadors were 
instructed to proceed to Decimus Brutus and his soldiers, and assure 
them that their services were appreciated and would be rewarded 
by the senate and the people^" It was decreed that, if Antonius 
did not yield to the demands of the ambassadors, the saga would 
be assumed, and it would be considered that Antonius had declared 

8a Phil. V. 46. «^ Phil- V- 52. '' Phil- ^- 53- 

85 PM. vii. 10, II, I4-, xi. 20; Res gestae 1. 11. 3-5, and p. 3 (Mommsen); Dio xlvi. 2p. 2, 3; Veil, 
ii. 61. 3; Ad Brut. i. 15- 7- 

86 Ad Brut., loc. cit.; Dio xlvi. 29. 2; App. iii. 51, 66. 

87 Phil vi 3 On the first three days of January the senate sided with Cicero against the proposition 
to send ambassadors {Phil. vii. 14). But the tribune, Salvius, according to Appian adjourned the debate 
on the question whether an ambassador should be sent or a tumultus declared. 

88 PhU. vi. 4. ^' Phil- vi- S. '° Phil- vi- 6. 



82 DECIMUS JUNIUS BRUTUS ALBINUS 

war upon the Roman people.®^ It was also voted that, in the mean- 
time, the consuls, one or both, should depart for the seat of trouble, that 
levies be held throughout Italy, that exemptions be withdrawn, and 
that all preparations be made for war."- At this meeting of the 
senate, too, on the motion of Lucius Caesar, the lex agraria of 
Lucius Antonius, which had been passed in June to win over the 
veterans to his brother, the consul, was repealed.^^ 

On the afternoon of the same day Cicero delivered to the people 
his sixth Philippic, in which he criticized the lukewarm conduct of 
the senate in sending ambassadors to a "gladiator," "* assured his 
hearers that Antonius would never obey its commands,''^ and urged 
upon them the necessity of aiding Decimus Brutus, of collecting 
troops everywhere, and of avoiding the crime of delay.®*' Cicero 
consoled himself, however, with the reflection that the legati would 
return within twenty days, and then his opinion would be 
unanimously accepted. 

The three consulares ®^ who composed the embassy, Servius 
Sulpicius Rufus, L. Calpurnius Piso, and L. Marcius Philippus,®^ 
departed from Rome on the morning of January 5.®^ Soon after 
their departure, the consul, Hirtius, who was still physically weak 
from long illness, having been chosen by lot to take command in the 
field, set out with a small troop of veterans to reinforce Octavianus 
and carry relief to Decimus. Pansa remained at home to superin- 
tend the levies.^*'" To Octavianus at Spoletium ^"^ in Umbria the 
news came that the imperium had been conferred on him by the 
senate. He marched thence to Forum Cornelium ^°^ on the via 
Aemilia in Cisalpine Gaul, having been joined by Hirtius at 
Ariminum.^"^ 

On January 24, Cicero having been asked by Paula, the wife of 
Decimus Brutus, if he had any communication for the latter, 
wrote "* him that nothing had as yet been heard from the legati, 

5' Phil. vi. 9. and vii. ii, 26; Fam. xii. 24. 2. «= Phil. vii. 11 ff. 

«3 Groebe's Drumarm, I, Anhang, pp. 424!.; Phil. \'i. 14. 

^*Phil. \'i. 3. »<i Phil. vi. 9. »« Phil. ix. i. 

9S Phil. vi. 5. 9'' Phil. viii. 17; xiii. 20. •>9 Phil. ix. 9. 

!<"> Phil. vii. 12; xiv. 4, 5. For the illness of Hirtius vide Fam. xii. 22. 2. The nucleus of Hirtius' 
force was made up of veterans who had deserted from the second and thirty-fifth Macedonian legions. 
Phil. V. 53; viii. s; Consulem .... cum cxercitu misimus. 

'°' Plin. N. H. xi. (73) 190; C. I. L., I, p. 383; xii, 4333- 

•03 Fam. xii. 5. 2; 2; Dio xlvi. 35. 4-7. 

"■3 Non. 239. 24 and Groebe's Drumann, I, p, 452. '°* Fam. xi. 8. 



DECIMUS' ADMINISTRATION OF CISALPINE GAUL 83 

and that all were waiting in suspense for news from them. He 
told Decimus, however, of the deep concern of the senate and the 
people for his safety and honor, of the wonderful affection for his 
name and unique love for himself which everybody felt, and of 
the confident expectation that he would this time free the state 
from the kingdom as he had already freed it from the king. He 
added that a levy was being held in Rome and throughout Italy, 
if it should be called a levy, when all voluntarily presented them- 
selves In Philippic vii, delivered toward the end of January, we 
have a similar testimony to the zeal of the people in enrolling their 
names for service, of the municipia in furnishing men and ple^g^^g 
money, and of individuals in equipping soldiers for the cause.^"^ 
In this speech Cicero showed the dishonor, danger, and the impossi- 
bility of peace with Antonius."« The people seemed to realize this, 
and there is no doubt that there was a genuine feeling of hostility 
toward Antonius and a corresponding sympathy for Decimus 

Brutus. 

The ambassadors, whose leader, Servius Sulpicius Rufus, had 
died in Antonius' camp before Mutina,^«^ did not return until Feb- 
ruary i.^**^ Antonius, instead of obeying the mandate of the senate, 
made counter-proposals and would not permit the legati to pass 
through his lines to inform Decimus Brutus of the senate's decree 
in his honor.i'"' He showed them the damage wrought by his 
engines to the town and the extent of his siege works, and did not 
suffer his attack to lag a moment while they were present.^^" Yet 
he seems to have been willing to make one concession, namely, to 
give up all claims to Cisalpine Gaul. His demands were:"^ (i) 
that the senate make grants of land to his soldiers, and that those 
having obtained lands from him and Dolabella be permitted to retain 
them ; (2) that the decrees of himself and his colleague remain in 
force; (3) that no account be taken of the money he had drawn from 
the Temple of Ops ; (4) that his lex iudiciaria be not repealed; (5) 
that Gallia Comata, with the six legions there brought up to 
their full complement by soldiers drawn from the army of Deci- 
mus Brutus, be granted him for five years, that is, until the end 
of the proconsular imperimn of M. Brutus and Cassius. When 

"s Phil. Aii. 13, 23, 24; Dio xlvi. 31- 4- ""• Phil- vii. 9- "' PhU- i^- i, 2. 

i°8 Fam. xii. 4. i. Cf. Fam. x. 28. i, 2 and Ganter, " Chronologische Untersuchungen zu Ciceros 
Briefen an M. Brutus u. Philippischen Reden," Jahrh. f. Phil., CXLIX, pp. 613 ff. 

"9 PM. viii. 21. I" PM. viii. 20. "■ PM. viii. 25 to 27. 



84 DECIMUS JUNIUS BRUTUS ALBINUS 

the senate met on February 2/^" a motion to send other legati to 
Antonius to continue the negotiations for peace was lost.^^^ Cicero 
moved that a helhim be decreed, involving- as it did the declaration 
that Antonius was a hostis. But the substitute motion of L. Caesar, 
that a tumultus be voted and the saga assumed on the 4th, pre- 
vailed.^^* It was also decreed on February 3 ^^^ on the motion of 
Cicero, that those soldiers who should leave Antonius by March i 
should be pardoned. But if anyone save L. Varius Cotyla should go 
to Antonius, he should be considered to have acted contra rem 
publicam.^'^^ 

It was probably on February 2 that the senatus consulHim ulti- 
mum was passed.^^^ About this time also the decree commanding 
Lepidus and L. Munatius Plancus to march into Italy to the aid of 
the consuls and Octavianus was adopted.^^^ 

On the 3rd Pansa read in the senate a dispatch from his col- 
league, Hirtius, to the effect that the latter had expelled the garri- 
son at Claterna and occupied the place."'' In a letter to Cassius, 
written soon after February 4,^^° Cicero says : "The decision in the 
whole war seems to rest on Decimus Brutus, and if he, as I hope, 
has broken out of Mutina, apparently there will be nothing left of 
the war. Quite small is the force that is besieging him now, for 
Antonius holds Bononia with a strong garrison. Moreover, Hirtius 
is at Claterna,^'^ Caesar near Forum Cornelium, both with reliable 
troops. Pansa has collected a large force at Rome from his levy. 
Up to this time the winter has prevented action. Hirtius, if we 
may judge from his frequent letters, will be careful in everything 
he does. Except Bononia, Regium Lepidi, and Parma, we are in 
control of all Gaul, which is thoroughly loyal. The Transpadani ^^^ 

'" Phil. viii. i; Phil. viii. was delivered February 3 (cf. 2. 6 and Nonius, p. 538); Ganter, p. 616. 

"3 Phil. viii. II, 20. Q. Fufius Calenus was the author. 

^^*Phil. viii. I, 2, 6. "Syiii. 32. ^^^ Phil. viii. 33. 

"' Res gestae i. 6.; Dio xlvi. 31.2. Mommsen, in his edition of the Res gestae, p. 4, is probably in 
error in assuming that this decree was a month earher. 

"8 Dio xlvi. 29. 6; Fain. x. 33.1. Lange (III, p. 336) considers that this 5. C. was passed after the 
news of the battle of Mutina had reached Rome. But at this time Plancus was already on his way to Italy. 
Vide Fam. x. 9. 3; x. 11. 2 and lullien, Fondateur de Lyon, p. 49- 

119 Phil. viii. 6. 

"° Fam. xii. 5. For the date vide Ganter, Jahrb. j. Phil., CXLIX, pp. 613 £f. 

"" According to Appian (iii. 6s), Hirtius, having the chief command, obtained the two legions that 
had deserted Antonius. 

"» Cf. Phil. xii. 10. Patavini alios excluserunt, alios eiecerunt missos ab Antonio; pecunia, militibus, 
et qtiod maxime de-erat, armis nostras duces adiuverunt. 



DECIMUS' ADMINISTRATION OF CISALPINE GAUL 85 

too, your clients, are wonderfully attached to our cause. The senate 
is most resolute except the consulares, of whom only L. Caesar is 
reliable and upright. We have lost a tower of strength by the death 
of Servius Sulpicius. The rest are deficient, some in energy, others 
in principle. Some envy the fame of those who they see have won 
approval in the government. But there is a wonderful unanimity 
among the people at Rome and throughout Italy." A similar account 
of the situation is given in the tenth Philippic,^^^ which was delivered 
shortly before this letter was written.^-* 

Cicero expected too much of Decimus Brutus. For probably the 
larger part of Antonius' forces — he had six legions ^^^ besides his 
praetorian cohort and cavalry — remained before the walls of Mutina. 
And even if Decimus who had only one veteran legion and two of 
recruits,^-** had been able to break through the strong circumvallation 
of Antonius, he would most likely have been crushed by the com- 
bined forces of his opponent before effecting his escape.^^''' Cicero, 
in his picture of the situation in Italy, fails to take account of Ven- 
tidius Bassus with his three legions, two of which he had raised for 
Antonius, probably in the previous year, among the veterans of 
Caesar colonized in Campania, and the third, in the Picene country, 
in the early part of 43.^^^ In the beginning of March, Ventidius 
was reported to have arrived at Ancona.^^® 

In the latter part of February Titus Munatius Plancus in the 
service of Antonius was defeated and forced out of Pollentia by 
Pontius Aquila, a legatus of Decimus Brutus.^^" 

Decimus himself, in Mutina, had repelled the assaults of 
Antonius with vigor.^^^ The secret agents of the latter, sent into 
the city to corrupt his men, Decimus detected and arrested. Anto- 

1=3 Paragraph 10. '^s Phil. viii. 25. 

"* Cf. Gnater, loc. cit. '"<> Fam. x. 33. 4. 

'"' Bononia, where the magnum praesidium was, was only twenty-five Roman miles from Mutina, and 
L. Antonius, at Parma, was only thirty-five Roman miles distant from Mutina. 

138 App. iii. 66. Cf. Schmidt, "P. Ventidius Bassus" {Philologus, LI, pp. xg8 ff.), and Bodewig, 
De proeliis apud Mutinam commissis, pp. 9 ff. 

129 Phil. xii. 23. March 8 is the latest terminus for the delivery of Philippic xii (Ruete, p. 45). For 
the appointment of the second embassy to Antonius, which probably took place the day before the speech 
was delivered (certainly not more than two days before; cf. xii. i fif. and 7), is mentioned in the letter 
of Antonius to Hirtius and Caesar {Phil. xiii. 36) which was brought to Rome March 20. The terminus 
post quern is February 23 {Phil. xii. 24). Philippic yi, then, must be dated somewhat earlier than Schmidt 
puts it, as Reule has shown. 

'3° Dio xlvi. 38. 3; Phil. xi. 14 (cf. Phil. xiii. a^). Schmidt {De epist. et a Cassio et ad Cassium 
pp. 34-37) thinks that the terminus ante quem of Phil. xi. was March 7. 

"31 Dio xlvi. 36. I. Cf . Phil. viii. 17, 20. 



86 DECIMUS JUNIUS BRUTUS ALBINUS 

nius had already by the end of January surrounded the town with 
works, and cut off communication with the outside world. Starva- 
tion seemed the only feasible method of reducing the besieged to 
submission. 

In the beginning of March Cicero's anxiety for the safety of 
Decimus had become so great that he even allowed himself to be 
named a member of the new peace commission of five consulares 
that the senate voted to send to Antonius.^^^ But this action of the 
senate proved unpopular in the city, and Cicero, after reflecting 
that it would be a confession of weakness on the part of the govern- 
ment at Rome, appeared in the senate the next day, and, in the 
twelfth Philippic, pleaded that he along with the consul Pansa and 
others had been deceived ^^^ by the false hopes of peace held out by 
the friends of Antonius, and urged the folly and inexpediency of 
such an embassy, and especially the impossibility of his being a 
member of it. The consequence was that the embassy never left the 
city. From the letter of Antonius which Cicero incorporates in the 
thirteenth Philippic, it appears that Antonius had made overtures to 
Hirtius and Caesar, probably for the purpose of forming a com- 
pact with them without regard to the senate. Hirtius and Caesar 
wrote back that there could be no peace unless Decimus Brutus were 
either released or aided with provisions. They also referred in their 
letter to the fact that the senate had appointed legati to Antonius.^^* 
The latter replied in a scornful letter taunting Hirtius and Octa- 
vianus for acting with the Pompeians and the enemies of the dictator, 
after they had received so many favors at his hands.^^^ 

The meeting of the senate at which this letter was read was 
held on March 20.^^" Perhaps Hirtius and Caesar were goaded to 
action by this stinging epistle which they received about the middle 
of March. For they now became alarmed for fear that Decimus, 
owing to the straits to which he was reduced for lack of food, 
might make terms with Antonius.^^'^ Accordingly, Caesar left his 
camp at Forum Cornelium, joined Hirtius at Claterna, and together 
they marched toward Bononia.^^^ On their approach the garrison 

■3' Phil. xii. I, 3, 17 ff. I3S Phil. xiii. 22 ff. 

133 Phil. xii. I, 2, 7. ^36 Phil. xiii. 7 ff., 50 and Fam. x. 6. i. 

mPhil. xiii. 34, 36. '3' Dio xlvi. 36. 2; App. iii. 65. 

'3' That Hirtius and Caesar did not winter together as Appian states, is shown by Cicero (Fam. xii. 
5. 2): erat aiu'em Claternae noster Hirtius, ad Forum Cornelium Caesar .... Hiemps adhuc rem geri 
irohibuerat, whose statement is confirmed by Dio xlvi. 35. 7. 



DECIMUS' ADMINISTRATION OF CISALPINE GAUL 87 

of Antonius abandoned the place ; Hirtius and Caesar took it and 
proceeded on their march toward Mutina. They put to flight some 
cavalry of Antonius that had turned to face them; but when they 
came to the river Scultenna, about five Roman miles from Mutina, 
they found the bridge guarded by a strong detachment of Antonius' 
troops, and there they halted.^^® 

Wishing to indicate their presence to Decimus, they signalled to 
him by means of beacons lighted in the tops of the tallest trees. 
When these were not understood, they sent swimmers across the 
river in the night with letters written on thin plates of lead and 
fastened to their arms.^*° These messengers, it must be assumed, 
swam the river either above or below the place where the troops of 
Antonius were stationed and thus found their way past the sentinels 
of Antonius into the town.^*^ Hirtius and Decimus also made use 
of carrier pigeons to communicate with each other.^'*^ Some relief 
was brought to the destitute condition of the besieged by means of 
salt and cattle floated down the river to a point from which they 
could be conveyed unnoticed into the town/**^ 

The extremity to which Decimus Brutus and his men were 
reduced for want of provisions caused disquiet at Rome. In two 
letters written about the end of March, one to Cassius,^** the other 
to M. Brutus,^*^ Cicero gives an idea of the desperate straits in 
which Decimus was. In the letter to M. Brutus, Cicero says : "At 
the time I write this, the situation is thought to have reached a 
crisis ; for gloomy letters and reports are being brought from our 
Brutus." He goes on to say that he is not especially alarmed by 
these reports ; that he has confidence in the armies and generals 
of the senate ; he does not agree with the majority of people, for 
he does not find fault with the fidelity oi the consuls, which is very 
much under suspicion. He does desire in some things foresight and 

I" Dio xlvi. 36. 3; Front. Strafeg. iii. 13. 7. The Scultenna (Scoltenna) is the western tributary of 
the Panaro (cf. Gardthausen ii. i. pp. 37 f.). Appian (iii. 73) speaks of " bridges," but it is not likely 
that the via Aemilia crossed the Scultenna by more than one bridge. 

i4<= Dio xlvi. 36. 4, s; Front. Strateg. iii. 13. 7; Plin. N. H. x. 37. no. 

'41 The assumption of Faulus (p. 34) and Gardthausen (ii. i. p. 38) that the Scultenna originally 
flowed beneath the walls of Mutina in the bed of what is now the eastern tributary of the Secchia, and has 
since changed its course, seems strange and difficult. It is true that the account of Frontinus conveys the 
impression that the Scultenna flowed close by the town of Mutina, though it does not distinctly say so. 
But if the troops of Hirtius and Caesar were encamped just across the river from Mutina, why was it neces- 
sary to signal their presence to the besieged from the tops of the tallest trees (Dio xlvi. 36. 4) ? 

142 Front. Strateg. iii. 13, 8; Plin. N. H. x. no. '^* Fam. xii. 6. 

'43 Front. Strateg. iii. 14. 3, 4. '4S Ad Brut. ii. i. 



S8 DECIMUS JUNIUS BRUTUS ALBINUS 

haste, and if they (the consuls) had shown these quaHties, they 
would long before have restored the free state. In the letter to 
Cassius, written a little later, he seems to have received more definite 
news from Decimus. "Brutus," he says,^'**^ "is holding out with 
difficulty now ; if he has been saved, we have already con- 
quered ; but if — may the gods avert the omen ! — you and Marcus 
Brutus are the last refuge of all." ^*^ 

From the first letter quoted it seems that the long delay of the 
consuls in making any effort to relieve Decimus caused their loyalty 
to be called into question. They certainly were singularly slow in 
bringing aid to Decimus, whose long and heroic defense of Mutina 
against overwhelming odds affords proof enough of his courage and 
fortitude as well as of his skill as a commander. 

But the siege was not to last much longer. For on March 19 ^*^ 
Pansa left Rome with the new levies, consisting of four legions of 
recruits,^*'' to reinforce his colleague, Hirtius, and the young Caesar. 
To avoid Ventidius, who was watching for the consul at Ariminum 
or Fanum, Pansa marched along the zna Cassia ^^° by way of Faesulae 
toward Bononia. Hirtius sent Galba a hundred miles on the way to 
meet him and bid him hurry to the rescue. In the night of April 
13-14, Hirtius, who was expecting Pansa to arrive in his camp on 
the next day, also sent D. Carfulenus with the Martian legion and 
two praetorian cohorts to conduct him and his recruits safely 
thither.^^^ There had already been numerous cavalry skirmishes, 
and Antonius, anxious for a decisive engagement before the arrival 
of Pansa, had appeared in battle array before the camp of Hirtius 
and Caesar. They did not show fight, however, as they were 
determined to wait for reinforcements. ^^^ Consequently, Antonius 
marched with two veteran legions II and XXXV, to cut off Pansa, 
supposing that he would meet only raw recruits.^^^ He awaited the 
approach of Pansa at Forum Gallorum, eight miles from Mutina, 
and having repulsed him, was himself defeated by Hirtius on the same 

"* Fam. xii. 6. 2. 

'4' Cf. Ad Brut. ii. 2. 2. (April 11) : Est enim spes omnis in Bruto expediendo, de quo vehementer time- 
bamus. 

148 Pam. xii. 25. i. Quinquatribus frequenti senatu .... Pansa tuas litteras recitavit, and Phil. 
xiii. 16: Caesar conjecit invictum exercitum; duo jortissimi consules adsunt cum copiis. 

149 Pam. X. 30. I. 

150 Phil. xiii. 23; Schmidt, "P. Ventidius Bassus," Philologus, LX, pp. 203 f. 
"SI Fam. X. 30. 1. 

'S' App. iii. 65; Dio xlvi. 37. 1-3. "3 Fam. x. 30. 4, 5. 



DECIMUS' ADMINISTRATION OF CISALPINE GAUL 89 

ground and forced to retreat to his camp at Mutina.^^* While this 
battle was going on at Forum Gallorum, L. Antonius, at Mutina, 
made an attack on the camp of Hirtius and Caesar, but was repulsed 
by the latter.^^^ These several engagements were fought on April 
14/^*' and the news of them reached Rome on the 20th.^^^ 

Three days before this news came there were rumors to the 
effect that Antonius had been victorious ; whereupon his partisans 
planned to take possession of the Capitol, the Forum, and the gates 
of the city. They spread the report that Cicero' intended to assume 
the fasces as consul, and, according to Cicero himself, they plotted 
to kill him as a tyrant because of his alleged intention to usurp 
the consulship. But P. Apuleius, on April 20, got up a counter- 
demonstration on behalf of Cicero, in which a large assembly of the 
people declared its confidence in the patriotism of the orator. Within 
two or three hours thereafter came the joyful news of the victory 
and the dispatches of the republican generals. There was then 
another demonstration of the people, who in a vast throng conducted 
Cicero to the Capitol and thence to the Forum, where he responded 
in a speech to their expressions of good will and shouts of congratu- 
lation.^^^ On the next day the senate met and, on the motion of 
Cicero, decreed that a monument be erected to the slain ; that the 
rewards promised them be paid to their heirs ; that there be suppli- 
cationes of fifty days in honor of the two consuls and of Octavianus, 
who were all three to be designated as imperatores ; and that the 
promises already made to the soldiers be renewed.^^® 

The substance of Appian's report of the events after the battle 
of Forum Gallorum is as follows : After his defeat at Forum Gal- 
lorum, Antonius determined to avoid a pitched battle and to harass 
the enemy by cavalry skirmishes until Decimus, exhausted by want 

^i^ Phil. xiv. 27. 

'55 Phil. xiv. 25, 37; Fam. x. 30; Dio xlvi. 37; App. iii. 67 ff. 

"s6 Ovid, Fasti iv. 621 ff.; C. I. L. x. 8375, with Mommsen's discussion in Hermes (1882,) pp. 635 f. 
Mommsen and Holzapfel {Jahrb. j. Phil., 1894, pp. 400 f.) endeavor to show that the date of the battle 
given in the MSS of Fam. x. 30. i,a. d. XVII Kal. Mai., is the correct date, and that the passage in Ovid 
refers only to the battle fought by Octavianus in defense of the camp before Mutina, and fixes the date of 
that battle as April 14. But they must assume that the young Caesar fought two battles, one on the 14th 
and the other on the 15th; whereas Cicero, who had the official reports of the consuls and of the young 
Caesar himself {Phil. xiv. 22), ascribes only one battle to him (Phil. xiv. 6 and 28). Or they must assume 
that Cicero was simply mistaken when he put the battle fought by Caesar on the same day as the battles 
in which Pansa and Hirtius took part. But Cicero could not have made this mistake with the official 
dispatches in his hands. 

'5' Ad Brut. i. 3. 2. 's' Phil. xiv. 14-16; Ad. Brut. i. 3. 2. 

IS9 Phil. xiv. 14, 34 ff.; Dio xlvi. 38. i. 2. 



90 DECIMUS JUNIUS BRUTUS ALBINUS 

of food, should surrender. When Hirtius and Caesar, who^ on 
account of Decimus' situation were anxious for a decisive engage- 
ment, appeared in battle array before his camp, Antonius did not 
respond to the challenge. Hirtius and Caesar then proceeded toward 
the other side of the town, which was not so well guarded because 
naturally difficult of approach, with the idea of forcing an entrance 
from that quarter. Antonius attacked them with his cavalry only. 
The cavalry of Hirtius and Caesar halted to receive that of Antonius, 
while the rest of their army proceeded on its way around the town. 
Antonius, fearing that the town would be released from his grasp, 
led out two of his legions. The forces of Hirtius and Caesar turned 
and gave battle, and Antonius called his other legions from their 
camps. These legions, owing to the suddenness of the summons 
and the distance, were slow in coming to the relief, and so the 
troops of Caesar were victorious. Hirtius penetrated the enemy's 
camp and, fighting near Antonius' quarters, was slain. Caesar 
secured the body of the consul and held the enemy's camp until he 
was forced out by Antonius. Both sides spent the night under arms. 
On the next day, in a council of war, Antonius was advised by his 
friends to continue the siege, while abstaining from battle according 
to his previous plan. They urged that his enemies had suflfered as 
much as he, that Hirtius had been killed, that Pansa was sick, that 
he had the advantage over them in cavalry, and that Mutina, reduced 
to the extremity of famine, would soon surrender. But Antonius, 
under the evil influence of a god, feared that Caesar, by an attack 
like that of the day before, would succeed in forcing an entrance 
into the town ; or that he would endeavor to surround him with 
his superior force, in which case his own superiority in cavalry 
would not avail. He feared too the effect of a defeat on Lepidus 
and Plancus. So he decided to retire from Mutina with the design 
of efifecting a junction first with Ventidius from Picenum and then 
with Lepidus and Plancus. With this in mind he proceeded toward 
the Alps. Such is the account of Appian (iii. 71, 72), the only source 
that gives any extended report of the battle of Mutina and the 
departure of Antonius from before its walls. 

Dio relates that after the battle of Forum Gallorum, Antonius, 
when Hirtius and Caesar appeared before his camp at Mutina, at 
first was frightened and remained quiet, but, having been reinforced 
by Marcus Silanus with troops from Lepidus, he took courage, 



DECIMUS' ADMINISTRATION OF CISALPINE GAUL 9 1 

made a sudden sally, and after much slaughter on both sides turned 
and fled.^^° In another passage ^^^ Dio says that the rewards which 
the senate had previously promised to the soldiers of Caesar it now 
voted to give to those of Decimus, although the latter had con- 
tributed nothing to the victory, hut had seen it from the walls. 

Dio is in error in regard to the time of the coming of Silanus to 
the aid of Antonius. For we learn from Galba's account ^^^ of the 
battle of Forum Gallorum that the praetorian cohort of Silanus took 
part in the battle, and therefore Silanus had reached Mutina at 
least a week before the battle there. Accordingly, the other state- 
ment of Dio that Antonius, because of the reinforcement brought by 
Silanus, made a sudden sally from his camp, thus assuming the 
offensive, contradicts the account of Appian given above as well as 
the probabilities in the case. For Appian expressly states that only 
when Hirtius and Caesar had started to attack another part of his 
circumvallation, did Antonius send his cavalry in pursuit and then 
lead out two of his legions. Again, Dio would have us believe that 
Antonius turned and fled from the battle, whereas Appian conveys a 
different impression. For he has it that, after Hirtius, who had 
taken possession of the camp of Antonius, had been slain, Caesar 
held the camp only a little while before he was dislodged by 
Antonius. Appian's account is borne out by the report of the battle 
that reached Asinius Pollio. Says Asinius in a letter to Cicero : ^^^ 
Nunc haec mihi scribuntur ex Gallia Lepidi et nuntiantur, .... 
■\Hirtino autem proelio et quartam legionem et omnis peraeque 
Antoni caesas, item Hirti, quartam vero, cuni castra quoque Antoni 
cepisset, a quinta legione concisam esse; ibi Hirtium quoque perisse 
et Pontium Aquilam; did etiam Octavianum cecidisse {quae si, 
qoud di prohibeant! vera sunt, non medeocriter doleo) ; Antonium 
turpiter Mutinae ohsessionem reliquisse sed habere equitum V, 
legiones sub signis armatas tris et P. Bagienni unam, inefmis bene 
multps, etc. From this passage it is seen that Antonius' departure 
from Mutina was not a flight; that he had probably inflicted as 
much damage as he had suffered ; but that, considering his position 
no longer tenable, and reflecting on the great advantages of union 
with Ventidius and afterward with Lepidus and Plancus, he retired 
of his own accord from the siege. Cicero himself writes,'-^* after the 
true inwardness of Antonius' departure from Mutina became known 

i'° Dio xlvi. 38. 5-7. "'= Fam. x. 30. i. ''"> Fain. xi. 12. 2. 

I*' Dio xlvi. 40. 2. ^'3 Fam. x. 33. 4. 



92 DECIMUS JUNIUS BRUTUS ALBINUS 

at Rome : Qid si ita se hahet, ut, quern ad modum audiebam de 
Graeceio, coniJigi cwn eo sine periculo non possit, non ille mihi 
fitgisse a Mutina videtiir, sed locum belli gcrendi mutasse. That 
Antonius' departure was looked upon at first as a retirement from 
a strong position and, as it were, an abandonment of the fight is 
shown by PolHo's expression : Antoniwn turpiter Mutinae obsessio- 
nem reliqidsse?^^ All of this goes to show that Dio's statement 
that Antonius "turned and fled," whether he means from the 
battle or from Mutina, in either case conveys an erroneous impres- 
sion. 

Now, in view of the fact that every statement which Dio makes 
in regard to the battle is either false or conveys a wrong impression, 
save only his mention of the death of Hirtius '^^^ and of Pontius 
Aquila,^®'^ what he says in regard to the soldiers of Decimus Brutus 
— namely, that they had no part in the victory except merely as 
spectators from the walls — may be entirely disregarded. For this 
statement bears upon its face the stamp of improbability and false- 
hood, prompted by the desire of its original author to flatter 
Augustus. Furthermore, it is flatly contradicted by the testimony of 
both Marcus Brutus and Cicero. Brutus, writing from Dyrrachium 
in the early days of May on the receipt of the first news of the 
battle of Mutina, says : ^^^ Cunv alia laudo et gaudeo accidisse, turn 
quod Bruti eruptio non solum ipsi salutaris fuit sed etiam maxima 
ad victoriam adiumento. Similarly explicit is the testimony of 
Cicero writing, May 29, after he had received the fullest possible 
information in regard to the battle, both favorable and unfavorable 
to Decimus Brutus : '^^^ Tantani spem attulerat exploratae victoriae 
tua praeclara Mutina eruptio, fuga Antoni conciso exercitu, ut 
omnium, animi relaxati sint, etc. It is conceivable that Decimus 
left a portion of his troops in the town to man the walls ; ^'^° but 

''s No doubt it was reported at Rome that Antonius had been utterly routed and compelled to flee, 
which was only seemingly, not really true. Cf. Fam. xi. 14. i. 

'** Dio xlvi. 39. I. 

'*' Dio xlvi. 40. 2. That Pontius Aquila had a part in the battle cannot be considered as proof of 
the participation of Decimus whose legaiiis he was. For Aquila had been operating outside of Mutina 
and was not in the town at the time of the battle, as Schmidt ("Der Tag der Schlacht von Mutina," 
Jahrh. j. Phil., 1802, p. 323) seems to think. Cf. Schelle, Todeskampf, p. 19, n. 3; Fam. x. 33. 4; Ad 
Brut. i. 15. 8, and supra, p. 85. 

I'S^i Brut. i. 4. I. "'» Fam. xi. 14. i. 

"° Schelle has attempted to reconcile the conflicting testimony of Dio and Cicero. His conclusion 
is {Todeskampf, pp. 17 if.): Er wird also anjangs sich abwartend verhalten und erst dann, als der Sieg sich 
auf die Seite seiner Verbundeten neigte, die Mutina einschliessenden Verschanzungen durchbrochen haben. 



DECIMUS' ADMINISTRATION OF CISALPINE GAUL 93 

that he led out a part against the besiegers, that they fought with 
desperation, and were an important factor in deciding the battle 
and influencing Antonius to retire from the town, seems as certain 
as anything can well be. If Decimus Brutus did not know of the 
fate of Hirtius and Aquila until the next day, we must assume 
that he made his sally through the circumvallation of Antonius 
at some distance from the latter's camp on the opposite side of 
the town ; or, what is more likely, the camp of Antonius where 
Hirtius and Aquila were slain was some distance from the walls. 
After making his sally and driving off the besiegers toward the 
camp of Antonius, Decimus again retired within the walls. 

The date of the battle of Mutina, since the conclusive demonstra- 
tion of Schelle ^'^^ and the additional argument of Schmidt,^'''^ is 
now generally accepted as April 21. On the 22d Antonius began 
his march toward the Alps,^'^^ and Decimus then learned for the 
first time of the deaths of Hirtius and Aquila. On the same day 
Decimus had an interview with the young Caesar,^'''* whose camp 
was probably across the Scultenna, four Roman miles from the 
town.^'^^ He urged upon Octavianus the necessity of intercepting 
Ventidius before the latter could effect a junction with Antonius 
and advised him to cross the Apennines for that purpose, while he 
himself marched along the via Aemilia in pursuit of Antonius. 
Octavianus probably gave him no definite assurance of what 
he would do,^'^*' but professed loyalty to the cause of the 
senate. ^'^'^ On the morning of the 23d Decimus received a summons 
from Pansa, who was at Bononia dying from the wounds he had 
received at the battle of Forum Gallorum. On the way thither Deci- 
mus learned that Pansa was dead, and therefore returned to his 
troops at Mutina. They were very much reduced in number and, 
owing to their long privations, were in a wretched plight, and utterly 
unfit for the rapid pursuit of Antonius. Besides, Brutus had no 
cavalry and was without beasts of burden.^'^* Before leaving 

'" Schelle, Beiirdge zur Geschicte des Todcskamfifes der Romischen Republik. pp. 9 flf. 

"" Schmidt, "Der Tag der Schlacht von Mutina," Jahrb. f. Phil., 1892, p. 325. 

"3 App. iii. 72. ^i^Fam. id. 13. i. 

"s App. iii. 73. Appian's account of the interview between Decimus and Octavianus is false. Cf. 
Fam. xi. 13. i. 

I'* Fam. xi. 10. 4. Quodsi Caesar me avdisset atque Appeninum transissel, etc. 

I" Fam. xi. 13. i: Caesari non credebam priusguam convenissem et coUocutus essem. implying that 
he trusted Caesar after the interview. 

"* Favi. xi. 13 I, 2. 



94 DECIMUS JUNIUS BRUTUS ALBINUS 

Mutina, he took over all the recruits of Pansa and Hirtius in the 
neighborhood, except one legion of Pansa which was under the 
command of Caesar/''^ 

On the morning of April 24 Decimus set out in pursuit of 
Antonius, who had two full days' start of him.^^** According to 
Schelle and Schmidt, owing to the exhausted condition of his 
troops, it must have required two days for him to reach Regium 
Lepidi, seventeen Roman miles from Mutina. There he halted and 
spent a few days in securing provisions for his army, as well as 
beasts of burden to convey his baggage. Antonius had just foraged 
the country, and Decimus' task of victualing his forces was there- 
fore all the more difficult. At Regium he was probably joined by 
the troops of Pansa that had been stationed at Bononia.^^^ 

Meantime, on April 26 the news of the battle of Mutina reached 
Rome. The senate met immediately and declared that Antonius 
and his followers were hostes,^^^ and voted that their property be 
confiscated ; that the saga be laid aside ; ^^^ that there be a supplicatio 
in honor of Decimus in all the temples of the gods ; ^^* that he be 
granted the honor of a triumph ; ^^^ that the consuls be buried in 
the Campus Martins, and that statues be erected to them and to 
Pontius Aquila, the legatus of Decimus.^**' To Octavianus it was 
voted that he be permitted to enter the city in ovation. The rewards 
promised to the soldiers were to be paid. That there was discrimina- 
tion against the soldiers of the young Caesar, as is asserted by Livy, 
Velleius, and Cassius Dio, is hardly credible in view of the express 
testimony of Appian to the contrary .^^'^ The motion of Cicero that 
the name of Decimus Brutus be entered in the calendar opposite the 
day on which the news of his release from Mutina was received at 
Rome, which was also his birthday, failed of passage.^^^ On the 
same day (April 27) it was decreed that Decimus Brutus should 

"' Cf. Schmidt, Jahrb. f. Phil., 1892, p. 328, and Fam. xi. 20. 4: de exercilu quern Pansa habuit 
legionem mihi Caesar non remittit. 

''° Fam. xi. 13. 2 : Biduo me Antonius antecessit. 

''' Cf. App. iii. 76; Schmidt, loc. cit. 

■'" Ad Brut. i. 5. i, 3a; Fam. x. 21. 4; Liv. Epit. 119; Dio. xl^i. 39. 3. 

'*3 Dio xlvi. 39. 3. 

^^* Fam. xi. 18. 3. Cf. Dio, loc. cit., and 40. i, and App. iii. 74. 

'Ss Liv. Epit. 119; Veil. ii. 62. 4. 

'*' Ad Brut. i. 15. 8; Liv. Epit. 119; Veil. ii. 62. 4; Val. Max. v. 2. 10; Dio xlvi. 40. 2. 

'^' Appian (iii. 74) says that the two legions that had deserted Antonius were to be paid 5,000 drach- 
mae and to have the right of wearing an olive crown in perpetuum. Cf. Fam. xi. 20. 2, 3. 

188 Ad Brut. i. 15. 8; cf. Fam. xi. 10. i and xi. 11. 2. Schmidt, Jahrb. j. Philol., 1892, p. 333, has 
fixed this date as April 27. 



DECIMUS' ADMINISTRATION OF CISALPINE GAUL 95 

take command of the army of the consuls and should pursue 
Antonius.^®^ 

Returning to Decimus Brutus, we find, from a letter of his to 
Cicero,^''" that on April 29 he was still at Regium. The time since 
he arrived he had spent in giving his troops a much-needed rest, 
in reorganizing his army, and in equipping it with provisions, bag- 
gage animals, and some cavalry. When ready to begin his march 
anew, he wrote Cicero of his plans. They were briefly: to drive 
Antonius out of Italy and guard the passes of the Alps to prevent 
his return, and to meet and defeat Ventidius Bassus, if possible, 
before he could efifect a junction with Antonius. He urged Cicero 
to use his influence by messengers and letters with that "shifty 
fellow Lepidus," to prevent his renewing the war in conjunction 
with Antonius. He was firmly convinced that Lepidus would never 
do right. Of Asinius Pollio he expressed no judgment, for he 
thought that Cicero knew what Asinius would do. Lepidus and 
Asinius ^^^ were important because of the number and reliability of 
their legions. He wished Cicero also to secure Plancus ^°^ in whose 
loyalty Decimus had confidence after the defeat of Antonius. 

On the 29th Decimus broke camp at Regium, continued his 
march along the via Aemilia, and on May 5 arrived at Dertona, 
having traversed the distance of about one hundred and ten Roman 
miles in seven days.^^^ Here he received news of the decrees passed 
by the senate after the report of the battle of Mutina and the flight 
of Antonius had become known at Rome. He also learned of the 
rejection by the senate of Cicero's motion, that the 27th of April, 
his birthday, be indicated in the calendar as such, since it was also 
the day of the announcement in Rome of the victory at Mutina.^®* 

'8' Ad Brut. i. 5. i; Liv. Epit. 120; Fam. xi. 14. 2, ig. i; App. iii. 74, 76, 80;. Dio. xlvi. 40, i, 47, 
3, so. I. For other decrees in regard to Sex. Pompeius, M. Brutus, and C. Cassius, vide Lange, III, p. 536. 

190 Fam. xi. 9. 

'»' Lepidus, governor of Narbonese Gaul and Hither Spain, had seven legions (App. iii. 84). Deci- 
mus' judgment of him was coniirmed by the sequel. Asinius, governor of Further Spain, had three legions; 
Fam. X. 32. 4. 

192 Plancus, governor of Gallia Comata, was at this time in the country of the Allobroges on his way 
to Italy in obedience to the command of the senate. (Cf. supra, p. 84, and Fam. xi. 11. 2.) 

'93 Fam. xi. 10. 

I'-t Ad Brut. i. 15. 8; cf. Schmidt (Jahrb. f. Phil., 1802, p. 333), who says that the motion was that 
the expression NAT{alis) D. IVNI BRUTI ALBINI should be placed in the calendar opposite the 
26th or, more correctly, the 27th, since on the latter day the news of the release of Decimus from siege 
reached Rome. The fact that Decimus received at Dertona the report of the defeat of Cicero's motion is, 
as Schmidt states, a proof that the battle of Mutina was fought on the 21st and the release of Decimus took 
place on the 2 2d. For it would require eight days for the account of the transactions of the senate on the 
27th in regard to the good news about Decimus that left Mutina on the 22d, to reach Dertona. That is, 
the report of the senate's proceedings would get to Dertona about May 5. 



96 DECIMUS JUNIUS BRUTUS ALBINUS 

In regard to those in the senate who objected to decrees in his 
honor, Decimus wrote Cicero that he preferred his judgment to 
that of all those of the opposition. For Cicero's judgment was real 
and sincere, whereas that of the opposition was warped by malice 
and envy/^^ "Let them prevent my being honored," says he, "pro- 
vided they do not interfere with the successful conduct of the busi- 
ness of the state." He refers to the serious danger to the state 
involved in the loss of the consuls, and apparently hints at the ambi- 
tion of Octavianus to hold the consulate.^^® He reports that Antonius, 
who had fled from Mutina with a "small force of unarmed infantry," 
by seizing gangs of slaves in barracks and impressing men of all con- 
ditions, had raised a considerable army. This army had been increased 
by the force of Ventidius, who had made a difficult march across the 
Apennines and, probably on May 3, joined Antonius at Vada 
Sabatia. Brutus complained bitterly of Octavianus because he had 
not crossed the Apennines and intercepted Ventidius. "For then I 
should have driven Antonius to such straits," says Decimus, "that 
he would have perished of destitution rather than by the sword. ^^'^ 
But orders cannot be given to Caesar nor can Caesar give orders to 
his army." 

After this union with Ventidius the plan of Antonius, according 
to Decimus, who was not yet sure of it, was either to join Lepidus ; 
or, occupying the Apennines and Alps, tO' make raids with his 
large force of cavalry into the country round about ; or to march 
back into Etruria, a part of Italy that was without an army. Deci- 
mus feared the effect at Rome of the strengthening of Antonius' 
army by new recruits and by the junction with Ventidius. The 
voluntary departure of Antonius from Mutina, having as it did 
the appearance of a flight, had not only produced the false impres- 
s's Cicero himself, two months later, in a letter to Marcus Brutus (i. 15. 8) says of those who opposed 
his motion for granting this special honor to Decimus: Atque illo die cognovi fawlo pluris in senatu inale- 
volos esse guam gratos. 

^^^ Fam. xi. 10. I, 2: Quae (res publico) guanio sit in periculo guam potero brevissime exponam. 
Primum omnium guantam perturbalionem return urbanarum adferat ohitus consulum guantamguc cupidiia- 
tem hominibus honoris iniciat vacuitas non te jiigit. Satis me multa scripsisse, quae liiteris commendari 
possint, arbitror: scio enim cui scribam. 

'" Schmidt (Jahrb. f. Phil., 1892, p. 327; Philologus, 1892, p. 208) has shown that the original 
plan of Decimus was that Caesar should march from Bononia across the Apennines to Florentia and 
meet Ventidius, who was probably at Faventia when the battle of Mutina was fought, and received orders 
immediately thereafter to march southwest across the Apennines to Florentia and thence northwest along 
the via Aemilia, in order to effect a junction with Antonius at Vada. This was probably the route that 
Ventidius did take; i. e., from Faventia by way of Faesulae, Pistoria, Luca, and Genua, to Vada, a distance 
of 250 miles. 



DECIMUS' ADMINISTRATION OF CISALPINE GAUL 97 

sion at Rome that Antonius was completely routed and was running 
away as fast as he could with a mere handful of men, but it had 
deceived Decimus himself, who plainly underestimated the strength 
of Antonius after the battle,^"^ 

If we are to believe the statement of Pollio, Antonius, after his 
union with Ventidius, had seven legions and five thousand cavalry 
under his command, though three of these legions were probably not 
full. That the army of Antonius was now stronger than that of 
Decimus it is safe to infer from the language of Cicero,^*** who had 
received, besides this letter of Brutus, a personal report from Brutus' 
messenger Graeceius. Decimus himself had but seven legions,^"" 
only one of which had seen veteran service, the rest being for the 
most part raw recruits. These legions, he wrote Cicero, he was 
no longer able to support with his private means. He had spent his 
fortune of more than 40,000,000 sesterces and mortgaged all his 
property to his friends since he had undertaken the task of freeing 
the republic.^**^ 

By the next day, May 6 ^*^^ Brutus had advanced into the country 
of the Statiellenses, where he learned definitely that Antonius was 
on his way to join Lepidus. In memoranda that had fallen into his 
hands, he found the names of the messengers Antonius had sent to 
Asinius, Lepidus, and Plancus, respectively. He immediately dis- 
patched a messenger to Plancus urging him not to yield to the 
solicitations of Antonius, but to oppose him. Within two days he 

198 In Pam. xi. 9, Decimus seems to have more fear from Lepidus than from Antonius himself. In 
par. 3 of the present letter we have his conception of Antonius' force at Mutina: Revertor nunc ad Anto- 
nium. Qui ex fuga cum parvulam manum peditiivt haberet inermium, etc. Contrast with this the state- 
ment of Pollio, Fam. x. 33. 4: Antoniiim turpiter Mutinae opsessionem reliquisse, sed habere equiium V, 
legiones sub signis armatas iris ei P. Bagienni unam, inermis bene multos; Ventidium quoque se cum 
legione sepiima, octava, nana coniunxisse. Compare with the estimate of Pollio, that of Lepidus {Fam. 
X. 34. I.), who writes to Cicero from Pons Argenteus about May 18, not so long after the union of Ventidius 
and Antonius: P. Ventidius suas legiones tris coniunxit cum eo el ultra me castra posuit. Habebat antea 
legionem quintam et ex reliquis legionibus magnam multitudinem, sed inermorum. Equitatum habet mag- 
num: nam omnis ex proelio integer discessil, ita ut sint amplius equititm milia quinque. 

199 Fam. xi. 12. 2: Qui {Antonius) si ita se habet, ut, quern ad modum audiebam de Graeceio, con- 
fligi cum eo sine periculo nan possit, non ille mihi fugisse a Mutina videtur, sed locum belli gerendi mutasse. 

'°° To the three legions which had been with him at Mutina, had been added four of the five legions 
of recruits that had belonged to the armies of Hirtius and Pansa. Pansa had led four legions of recruits 
into Cisalpine Gaul, but the young Caesar, had retained one of these after the battle of Mutina. Hirtius' 
and Caesar's army before the arrival of Pansa had consisted of four veteran legions and one of recruits. 
Three of Pansa 's legions and the one legion of recruits of Hirtius and Caesar had joined Decimus after his 
release from the siege. Cf. Groebe's Drumann I, pp. 450 ff. 

=°' One of these friends was Pontius Aquila whose expenditures in behalf of Decimus' army the 
senate voted to refund to his heirs (Dio xlvi. 40. 2). If any proof were needed of Decimus' loyalty to the 
cause of the republic, this circumstance would seem to furnish it. 

'"- Fam. xi. 11. 2. 



98 DECIMUS JUNIUS BRUTUS ALBINUS 

expected to receive legati from the Allobroges and all Gaul, whom 
he purposed to send back home confirmed in their loyalty.^"^ 

From the country of the Statiellenses Decimus continued his 
march to the southwest toward Vada, where Antonius was encamped. 
When he was within thirty Roman miles of Vada,^°* he received the 
report of a speech that Antonius had delivered to his soldiers in 
which he besought them to follow him across the Alps, and told 
them that he had an understanding with Lepidus. The soldiers of 
Ventidius cried out against this proposal of Antonius, saying that 
they ought to conquer or die in Italy. They then begged that they 
might march to Pollentia. Antonius, not being able to withstand 
their clamor, postponed his march until the next day. When Anto- 
nius' projected advance upon Pollentia became known to Decimus, 
he immediately dispatched five cohorts to anticipate him and directed 
thither the march of his main body. His cohorts arrived there an 
hour before Trebellius with the cavalry of Antonius. Decimus con- 
sidered this an omen of victory.-*^^ When Trebellius found the town 
already occupied by the troops of Brutus, he retreated southward 
and rejoined the main body of Antonius' forces, which now continued 
its march along the Ligurian coast toward Lepidus. Decimus must 
have arrived at Pollentia about the nth of May. For on May 6, 
he was at a point about eight Roman miles east of Aquae Statiel- 
lae.-°^ From that point to Pollentia the distance by the road was 
about ninety-two miles, five days' march. 

Paulus -"^ thinks that Decimus was deceived in thinking it of 
advantage to occupy Pollentia. But after the union of Antonius 
with Ventidius, Decimus probably decided, in view of the superiority 
of the veteran forces of the enemy to his own untried recruits, to 
avoid a pitched battle, and to march to join Plancus, especially as he 
thought that Lepidus would receive Antonius. Antonius doubtless 
knew that Decimus would direct his march toward the northwest 
and by taking the route along the upper Durius (Dorea Baltea) 
effect a junction with Plancus, who at this time was encamped upon 
the Isara near Cularo. Flence his object in sending his cavalry to 

'°3 Fam. xi. ii. i. ^°* Fam. xi. 13. 3. '°s Fam. xi. 13. 4. 

"' Ruete, Correspondcnz, p. 50. Tyrrell and Purser, note to Fan?, xi. 13, put Brvitus at Aquae 
Statiellae on the morning of the 7th. But, probably, he spent the night of the sth-6th at Dertona. And 
as it was twenty-seven miles from Dertona to Aquae Statiellae, he halted on the evening of the 6th at a 
point about eight miles east of Aquae Statiellae. 

ao7 Dissertation, p. 47. 



DECIMUS' ADMINISTRATION OF CISALPINE GAUL 



99 



Pollentia was to obstruct the march of Decimus, In reaching Pol- 
lentia before the cavalry of Antonius, Decimus gained at least the 
advantage of keeping his road to Plancus clear. 

Plancus had already on April 26,-°^ in tardy obedience to the 
mandate of the senate, crossed the Rhone near Lyons and entered 
Narbonese Gaul, the province of Lepidus, with the intention of 
marching into Italy and co-operating in the relief of Decimus 
Brutus at Mutina.^o^ He had chosen the route through Bergusium, 
Labiscum, Lemincum, along the valley of the Isara (Isere) through 
the Graian Alps to Eporedia.-" When he had marched some dis- 
tance into the country of the Allobroges, he heard the news of the 
battle of Mutina, halted his march, recalled his cavalry, and held his 
army in a waiting attitude. Meanwhile, through confidential mes- 
sengers, he urged Lepidus to act in concert with himself against 
Antonius ^^ and for the republic. Lepidus pledged himself to give 
battle to Antonius, if he were not able to keep him out of his 
province, and requested Plancus to march with his forces to join 
him.212 Accordingly, Plancus turned southward and, on May 12, 
crossed the Isara (Isere) at Cularo by means of a bridge which he 
had constructed in a single day. On the 13th, having learned of the 
arrival of Lucius Antonius at Forum luli, he sent his brother with 
four thousand cavalry to meet him. He himself followed by forced 
marches with four legions and the rest of his cavalry.^^^ 

From the statement of Plancus we infer that L. Antonius had 
reached Forum luli by the 8th or 9th. For it would require four 
or five days for a messenger to bring the news of his arrival to 
Plancus on the Isere. From a letter of Asinius Pollio,who announces 
to Cicero the union of Ventidius and Antonius and the occupation 
of the Alps by L. Antonius, we conclude that L. Antonius, with his 
contingent of cavalry and cohorts, was several days' march in 
advance of M. Antonius' main army.^" We know from the proba- 
bilities in the case, as well as from the text of Fam. x. 17. i, that 
Marcus Antonius with the vanguard of his main army did not arrive 
at Forum luli until May 15. For it is practically certain that M. 
Antonius was at Vada on May 6, where he made a speech to his 

">^ Fam. X. 9. 3. '"^ Fam. x. ii. 2. 

"o Groebe's Drumann, /. Anhang, p. 463, and C. I. L., XII, maps. 

"" Fam. X. II. 3, 15. 1. :.i3 Fam. x. 15. 3, and cf. Groebe, Drumann, I. Anhang p. 464. 

'"Fam. X. 15. 2. '^'^Fam. x. 33. 4. 



lOO DECIMUS JUNIUS BRUTUS ALBINUS 

army {vide supra, p. 98), probably, on that day.^^^ He apparently 
did not leave Vada until May 7, possibly not until the 8th. On his 
departure, or before, he dispatched some cavalry under Trebellius to 
take Pollentia, or at least to make a feint against it. Whether he 
had to wait on the way for his cavalry to rejoin him or not, he would 
not be likely to march from Vada to Forum luli, a distance of one 
hundred and thirty-two Roman miles,^" along the route of the 
via hilia Augusta, in less than seven days. It would probably 
require eight days. And Antonius was, doubtless, delayed at least 
a day in waiting for the cavalry that had gone to Pollentia. Conse- 
quently, it is entirely reasonable to suppose that he reached Forum 
luli on May 15, just as we read in the text of Fam. x. 17. i : Anto- 
nius Id. Mai. ad. Forum luli cum prim^is copiis venit. Ventidius 
bidui spatio abest ah eo. According to Groebe,^^^ two of the best 
MSS have here Antonius Idus Maias, etc. And so, under the mis- 
taken impression that the Antonius here mentioned is L. Antonius, 
whose arrival at Forum luli Plancus chronicles in Fam. x. 15. 3,^^* 
Groebe, in order to make Plancus consistent, suggests that, instead 
of the simple alteration in the MSS, Idus Maias to Id. Mai. (or 
Mails), that our editors have adopted, we should write a. d. VIII 
Idus Maias. But the Antonius mentioned in Fam. x. 17. i is 
none other than Marcus Antonius, as is shown by the absence of the 
praenomen and by the mention of Ventidius in the immediate connec- 
tion. Probably the truth is that Antonius, when he halted at Vada 
about May 3,-^'' at once sent his brother Lucius on to meet Lepidus. 
And Plancus, having already written Cicero of Lucius' arrival at 
Forum luli, now informs him that Marcus with the vanguard of 
his main army has arrived at the same place. Hence Groebe's sug- 
gested change in the present text is unnecessary, incorrect, and 
impossible. 

This same letter to Cicero, written by Plancus on the march 
from Cularo to join Lepidus,^^" announces that Lepidus was 

='s Fam. xi. 13. 2, 3, 4; cf. xi. 10. 3 and xi. 11. 

ai' C. I. Z,., V, 2, p. 828, and XII, p. 635. Tabula Peutingeriana makes it 123 miles. 

"' Drumann, Anhang, p. 464. The MSS Groebe refers to are evidently Mediceus 49. 9 and Har- 
leianus 2682. Cf. Mendelssohn, Cicero Epislulae, p. 256. 

"' Cum vera mihi nuntiatum est L. Antonium praemissum cum equitibus venisse, jratrem cum equitum 
qualtuor milibus, ut occurreret ei, misi a. d. Ill Idus Mai. The MSS have a. d. V Idus Mai.; but see Tyr- 
rell and Purser's note, Vol. VI, p. 146. 

»'!> Schmidt, Jahrb. f. Phil., 1892, p. 326. 

""> Fam. X. 17 is dated May 19 or 20 in Miiller's and Purser's editions, but Groebe (Drumann, I, p 
467) puts it on May 27. 



DECIMUS' ADMINISTRATION OF CISALPINE GAUL lOI 

encamped at Forum Voconi, twenty-four Roman miles from Forum 
lull, and that he had determined to wait there until Plancus joined 
him. Lepidus himself had already informed Cicero of his arrival at 
Forum Voconi.^^^ "On hearing," he wrote, "that Antonius with his 
troops was coming- into my province, and that L. Antonius had been 
sent ahead with a part of the cavalry, I broke camp and began my 
march from the confluence of the Rhone ^-^ against them. And so 
by continuous marches I have come to Forum Voconi and have 
pitched my camp beyond on the Argenteus against the Antonians." 
In the same letter, after reciting the fact that Ventidius had joined 
Antonius with his three legions, and after stating the strength of 
Antonius' forces,^^^ he reports that several of the latter's men had 
crossed over to himself, and that the numbers of the enemy were 
being continually diminished. Among those who had left Antonius 
were Silanus and Culleo. Silanus, we remember, had been sent into 
Italy ostensibly to aid the republic, but had fought on the side of 
Antonius around Mutina.^^* Q. Terentius Culleo had been stationed 
by Lepidus to guard the passes of the Alps, but had permitted 
Antonius to march through unhindered. ^^^ Lepidus writes that, 
although he had been grievously wronged by those two in that they 
had gone over to Antonius, yet, out of regard for humanity and the 
ties of relationship ( l),^^® he had spared their lives, but at the 
same time he had dismissed them from his service and had forbidden 
them to remain in his camp. As far as the war was concerned, 
Lepidus professed loyalty to the senate and the republic. The date 
of this letter as well as of the arrival of Lepidus at the Argenteus 
was, probably. May 18.^^'^ On the 22d he writes another let- 
ter ^^^ to Cicero, referring to certain "false rumors" in Rome which 
called his loyalty in question, and expressing his pleasure that Cicero 
did not believe them. However, he made no promise of action 
against Antonius, but merely asked Cicero to expect him in re 
puhlica administranda to live up to his previous reputation, which, 
if we are to believe Dio,^^® was certainly bad enough. 

Returning to Decimus Brutus, we find that before receiving his 
letter, which announced his occupation of Pollentia,^^" Cicero, about 

"" Fam. X. 34. 1. "« Lepidus was brother-in-law of Silanus. 

"' With the Druentia (Durance). *" Tyrrell and Purser, Vol. VI, p. 173, note. 

"3 Vide supra, p. g6. '"^ Fam, x. 34. 3, 4. 

"* Vide supra, pp. 90 f. "» Dio xliii. i. 

"s App. iii. 83. "o pam. xi. 13. 1-4. 



I02 DECIMUS JUNIUS BRUTUS ALBINUS 

the middle of May wrote -"^ him of the change that men had under- 
gone in the city, when from the universal assurance that Antonius 
had fled broken-spirited and with a few panic-stricken, unarmed 
soldiers, they came to realize that he had merely transferred the 
seat of war and was still a dangerous antagonist. "Some actually 
complain and say that you did not pursue him ; they think that, if you 
had hurried, he could have been crushed." Cicero apparently did not 
altogether approve of this criticism. "But still you must see to it," 
he adds, "that there can be no just complaint. The situation is thus : 
whoever crushes Antonius will finish the war." 

A few days later, on May 19, Cicero wrote another letter ^^^ to 
Decimus, in which he censures him for the tone of a recent dispatch 
of his to the senate. In that communication Decimus had probably 
expressed in a guarded manner his apprehensions as to the attitude 
of Octavianus, and his lack of confidence in the position of the 
senate, and especially of its dominant faction, the party of Cicero 
and himself, in view of the supposed ambitions of the young Caesar. 
Accordingly, he advised that the senate take active measures to con- 
ciliate both Caesar and his soldiers. -^^ There was probably in the 
dispatch of Decimus, also, a warning that Lepidus would unite with 
Antonius against the republic. Cicero wrote Decimus that his 
advices to the senate were too timid, considering the victory at 
Mutina. Furthermore, the senate felt offended because he, either 
in the tone of his recommendations or in so many words, had 
reflected on its courage. Cicero in this letter not only implied that 
they w^ere free from fear in regard to the danger at which Decimus 
had mysteriously hinted (the danger from Octavianus), but he 
assured him that neither did they fear Lepidus.'^* 

But even before Cicero wrote this letter Decimus' apprehensions 
on the score of Lepidus had been removed. For on May 15, he 
received from Plancus the information that Antonius was not going 
to be received by Lepidus. '-^^ This good news, coupled with the 
announcement that Plancus was on his way to join Lepidus, and 
that they were going to act in concert against Antonius, doubtless 

»3> Fam. xi. 12. »3j Fam. jd. 18. 

»33 Cf. Fam. xi. 20. 3, 4. After the battle of Mutina, Caesar with five legions (four of veterans, one 
of recruits. Fam. xi. 20. 3. 4) had marched southward, apparently to comply with the advice of Decimus 
to intercept Ventidius. He seems to have got somewhere near Ventidius, but made no attempt to stay his 
progress toward Antonius (App. iii. 80). He was probably engaged in raising additional troops and in 
political intrigues through his friends at Rome. 

'^* Fam. xi. 18. i, 2. '^i Fam. x. 20. 2; xi. 14. 3; cf. xi. 23. i. 



DECIMUS' ADMINISTRATION OF CISALPINE GAUL 103 

had some influence in causing Decimus to delay his departure from 
Italy. For he naturally hoped that the combined forces of Plancus 
and Lepidus would be amply sufficient to crush Antonius. Besides, 
the menacing attitude of the veterans under Octavianus gave him 
serious alarm for the safety of his own party at Rome.^^" These 
considerations seem to explain satisfactorily why Decimus deter- 
mined to remain in Italy, at least until he heard from Cicero and 
got further orders from the senate.^" 

Consequently, instead of continuing his march by the most direct 

route to reach the passes of the Alps along the valley of the Durius 

(Dora Riparia), Decimus, after leaving Pollentia, turned eastward 

to Vercellae, probably to procure supplies for his needy troops 

and to obtain recruits. At Vercellae, on May 21,^38 he wrote to 

Cicero, sending at the same time a dispatch to the senate, which 

probably contained something that might give offense to the' friends 

of Octavianus.239 At any rate, Decimus wished Cicero to alter 

anything in his official letter that it might seem improper to make 

public. In his personal letter to Cicero he refers for the first time 

to his disappointment that the fourth and Martian legions had not 

joined him in accordance with the decree of the senate adopted 

soon after the battle of Mutina. We do not know what influenced 

these veterans. Probably they were unwilling, as was reported to 

Cicero,2*« to serve under one who had had a part in killing Caesar, 

and doubtless the prospect of larger rewards from Octavianus had 

no little weight with them. In view of the uncertain temper of 

young Caesar and the threatening attitude of his soldiers, the 

veterans of the dictator, it was with good reason that Decimus had 

grave apprehensions as to the situation at Rome. Nunc vero, he 

writes, cum sim cum tironihus egentissimis, valde et meam et vestram 

vicem timeam necesse est. 

On the 24th he had advanced northward to Eporedia, where he 

"^' Fam. xi. 20. i, 2. 

"7 Fam. xi. 23. 2. Under the circumstances Paulus (p. 48) and JuUien {Le Fondateur de Lyon p 
72) are unjust in their criticism of Decimus for his delay in crossing the Alps to join Plancus. 

"38 Fam. xi. 19. 
_ "9 An idea of the contents of the dispatch may be obtained from the letter of Cicero in reply {Fam 
^'^ 'rt , • ■' ■''*^""'^^' «"'''" i^siieras, ratio potest haheri eaque habebitur. De Bruto arcessendo Caesareou'e 
ad Itahae praes^d^um tenendo valde tibi adsentior. . . , , Ex Africa legiones exspectantur The sum- 
monmg of Brutus was in reality suggested by Decimus to protect Cicero and the republicans from the 
young Caesar and his soldiers. So the reference to Caesar here must be a bhnd and at the same time in- 
tended to conciliate him. Besides, it was probably a good idea to keep him at a distance from Antonius. 

"° Fam. xi. 14. 2; cf. Phil. xi. 38. 



I04 DECIMUS JUNIUS BRUTUS ALBINUS 

wrote -" Cicero more in detail concerning the complaints of Caesar 
and the veterans. Cicero was reported to have made an intemperate 
remark about Octavianus (laudandiim adolescentem, ornandum, 
tollendum), which had been repeated to the latter and, as Decimus 
hears, had given him offense. Decimus' authority for this ston^, 
Labeo Segulius, also wished him to believe that the veterans were 
angry because neither Caesar nor himself had been appointed on the 
board of ten that had been designated by the senate to assign lands 
to the soldiers. The language of the veterans, as Labeo had 
reported, was violent and threatening toward Cicero. When Deci- 
mus heard this, though already on his march toward the Alps, 
he halted until he could learn what was going on at Rome. In his 
opinion, the friends of Octavianus, by boasting and threatening, by 
inspiring Cicero with terror, and by urging on the young man, hoped 
to make profit for themselves. Still he advised Cicero to be on his 
guard, to comply with the wishes of the veterans in regard to the 
decenmiri, and to secure the passage of a decree granting to them 
the lands belonging to the soldiers of Antonius and promising that 
the senate would determine in the future the matter of pecuniary 
rewards for them. Decimus had made up his mind not to leave 
Italy unless it were absolutely necessary. But he was not idle. He 
was arming and equipping new legions so as to have an army "to 
meet all the changes of fortune and the violence of men." In his 
next letter, of the following day. May 25 ^^^ (he was still at 
Eporedia), he spoke with renewed confidence of the loyalty of Lepi- 
dus. As to Octavianus and the veterans, he seems to have received, 
after writiiig on the day before, reassuring news.^*^ So that his 
fears for Cicero and his party at Rome were somewhat relieved, and 
he could write : Omni timore deposito debemus libere rei publicae 
consnlere. Quod si omnia essent aliena,'*^ tamen tribus tantis 
exercitibus, propriis rei publicae, valentibus, magnum animum 
habere debebas, quem et semper Jtabuisti et nunc fortuna adiuvante 
auger e potes. 

Cicero, in his reply -*^ of June 4 to the first -*® of Decimus' letters 

=■»' Fam. xi. 20. ^"3 Pam. xi. 23. 

243 Most likely in a letter from Cicero, possibly Fam. xi. 18. 

344 Paragraph i. In the expression quod si omnia essent aliena, Tyrrell and Purser think that the 
reference is to Lepidus and that "the three armies are those of Octavianus, of Plancus and his (Decimus') 
own." On the contrary, the reference in the expression quoted is to Octavianus, and the three armies are 
those of Lepidus, Plancus, and Decimus. 

'*s Fam. xi. 21. '-i^ Fam. xi. 20. 



DECIMUS' ADMINISTRATION OF CISALPINE GAUL 105 

from Eporedia, avoided a direct denial of having made the remark 
about Octavianus that he was alleged to have made. He explained 
why Decimus and Octavianus were not appointed on the board of 
ten to distribute lands to the soldiers, by the fact that there was 
opposition to Decimus in the senate on the part of those who were 
persistently arrayed against any measure in his favor. Cicero makes 
light of the warning of Decimus that he should take care lest by 
showing fear he would be compelled to fear all the more : ^*'' 
"Your injunction that I should be on my guard lest by showing 
fright I may be forced to be all the more afraid, is a wise and 
friendly one. But I should like you to persuade yourself, since you 
are well known to excel in that kind of courage, never to have any 
fear or alarm that I may attain even approximately to your particular 
brand of bravery." 

In the next letter, written two days later, June 6, in reply to 
Decimus' second letter from Eporedia, Cicero says : ^*^ Quod scribis 
in Italia te moraturum, dum tibi litterae meae veniant, si per hosfem 
licet, non erraris {multa enini Romae), sin adventu tuo bellum 
coniici potest, nihil tibi sit antiquius. He seems to admit that trouble 
was brewing at Rome — but he thinks that the ending of the war with 
Antonius would be the best service Decimus could render at that 
time. 

But more than a week before Cicero wrote this, an event had 
happened that made the task of ending the war with Antonius 
under the circumstances almost an impossible one for Decimus. For 
on the 29th of May, in the early morning (the fourth watch), 
Antonius and his troops were received into the camp of Lepidus.^*® 
Immediately after the union of the two armies, on the same day, 
Antonius began his march toward Plancus. Lepidus remained 
behind at the Pons Argenteus until the next day, May 30, to explain 
his treachery in an official letter to the magistrates and senate. 
Plancus, who was encamped at Verdon, forty Roman miles to the 
northwest of the camp of Lepidus, did not hear the news until 
Antonius was already within twenty miles of him. He at once 
began a hasty but orderly retreat. On the 4th of June he recrossed 
the Isara (Isere), cut down the bridges, and awaited at Cularo 

»■«' Fam. xi. 21. 4; cf. xi. 20. 3. '*^ Fam. xi. 24. 

349 Fam. X. 3s; x. 23; and x, 21 which Groebe (Drumann, I, pp. 465 ff.) puts after the news of the 
union of Lepidus and Antonius had reached Plancus on May 29. Cf. App. iii. 84; Plut. Ani. 18; Dio 
xlvi. 51; Veil. ii. 63. 



Io6 DECIMUS JUNIUS BRUTUS ALBINUS 

(Grenoble) the arrival oi Decimus Brutus, whom he expected by 
June 8.-^° 

Decimus must have started from Eporedia not later than May 
27. For by the route which he took, along the valley of the Durius 
{Dora Baltea) through the Graian Alps, Darantasia, Obilinnum, 
and down the valley of the Isara, the distance from Eporedia to 
Cularo was close on to two hundred Roman miles. "^^ Allowing 
fifteen miles a day, a large number for that rough country, he would 
have had to leave Eporedia on May 27 to arrive at Cularo on June 
8. Since his departure from Mutina he had increased his army by 
three new legions,^^^ raised for the most part in the neighborhood of 
Eporedia. On his march to Plancus he seems to have received the 
news of the junction of Lepidus and Antonius ; for on June 3 he 
wrote to Cicero : ^^^ "In my deep grief I console myself with this 
reflection that men understand that with good reason I feared what 
has happened. Let them [the senate] deliberate whether or not to 
bring over the legions from Africa and Sardinia ; whether or not to 
summon Brutus ; and whether to give me pay for my soldiers or 
merely promise it. I have sent a dispatch to the senate. Believe 
me unless all these things are done just as I write, all of us will be 
imperiled. I request you to be careful to whom you intrust the 
business of leading the legions to me. Loyalty and haste are 
required." It is true that Decimus had early expressed his distrust 
of Lepidus ; but recently he had suffered himself to be deceived 
by the optimistic reports from Plancus, and his fears from that 
source had been quieted. This last letter of his to Cicero betrays 
a petulance and impatience that was more characteristic of Marcus 
Brutus than of himself. But it is hardly strange that a man in his 
situation, in view of the slowness and indecision of the senate,^°* 
should have thus expressed himself in a private letter. 

Decimus' rapid march across the Alps seems to have surprised 
Antonius and Lepidus. His arrival at Cularo relieved the fears of 
Plancus that his army of four legions would be crushed by the com- 
bined forces of the enemy. Decimus and Plancus sent forward 
some cavalry to aid the Allobroges in delaying the approach of 
Antonius and Lepidus, and they apparently thought of advancing 
against them themselves, as we learn from their report ^°° to the 

'S" Fam. X. 23. 2, 3. 'SiFam. 3d. 26. 

»5' Cf. C. I. L., V, 2, pp. 755, 76s, and maps of Vol. XII. »54 Cf. Fam. xi. 14. i. 

asa Fam. xi. 20. 4 and x. 24. 3. =ss Fam. xi. 13a. 4, 5. 



DECIMUS' ADMINISTRATION OF CISALPINE GAUL 107 

magistrates and senate. "Nevertheless, even if by chance," this 
report goes on to say, "tJiey should cross the Isara, we shall do our 
best to see that they do not inflict any damage on the republic." 
They further announce that the union of their armies is complete, 
but they urge diligence on the part of the government at Rome in 
sending them aid. 

The junction of Decimus with Plancus raised the hopes of 
Cicero and those at Rome ^^^ after the feeling of alarm that had 
followed the report of the treachery of Lepidus. On the 30th of 
June Lepidus was declared a public enemy (hostis) by the unani- 
mous vote of the senate, along with the rest of those who had 
deserted the republic at the same time as he.^^''' To the latter, how- 
ever, an opportunity of returning to allegiance before September 
I was left. 

From the middle of June to the end of July the armies of 
Decimus Brutus and Plancus remained idle, awaiting, and at the 
same time dreading, an attack from the forces of Antonius and 
Lepidus. From the last letter ^^^ we have from Plancus to Cicero, 
dated July 28, we learn why the consuls-designate had not dared to 
assume the offensive. "Up to this time," Plancus writes, "we have 
kept the situation unchanged. Although I know how much men 
desire a victory and not without reason, yet I hope you approve of 
our plan [of inactivity]. For, if there should be any reverse in the 
case of these armies, the republic has no great reserve force ready to 
withstand the sudden rebellious onslaught of these traitors. But I 
think you know the strength of our forces. In my camp I have 
three veteran legions, one of recruits which is quite the best of all. 
In his camp, Brutus has one veteran legion, one of two years' 
service, and eight of recruits. So the army, as a whole, is imposing 
in numbers, but weak in strength. Moreover, how much confidence 
can be put in a recruit in battle, too often we have learned by 
experience." -^^ It should be added, to what Plancus says of the 
state of their forces, that many of Brutus' men had suffered greatly 
from their privations and from sickness.^^" It seems that Octavianus 
had promised to go to their assistance, and they had been expecting 

as« Fam. xi. 15; x. 22. =5* Fam. x. 24. 

'ii Fam. xii. 10. i. »S9 i?am. x. 24. 3. 

»'" Appian (iii. 81) says that they suffered with the dysentery. Cf. Fam. xi. 19. i, where Brutus 
says cum sim cum tironibus egeniissimis, App. iii. 97. 



Io8 DECIMUS JUNIUS BRUTUS ALBINUS 

the veteran legions from Africa.^*'^ Plancus thinks that if Caesar 
had been wilHng to come when he had promised, the war would 
have been ended, or Antonius and Lepidus would have been driven 
into Spain, which was most hostile to them. 

The armies of Lepidus and Antonius were equal to those of 
their opponents in number of legions, and very much superior in 
cavalry strength, as well as in point of service and equipment.-®^ 
Consequently Decimus and Plancus were probably wise in not risk- 
ing a pitched battle. But prospect of reinforcement there was none. 
The urgent appeals of Cicero to Marcus Brutus to lead his army to 
Italy had been in vain.^"^ Cassius too had been summoned by Cicero, 
but with no better result. ^*'* The African legions had not yet 
arrived, though a decree of the senate had summoned them.^®"* 
Altogether the outlook was exceedingly gloomy for Decimus and 
Plancus, 

It was about a month after Plancus had written the letter above 
referred to, that, notwithstanding his many protestations of loyalty, 
he deserted Decimus and the republic and joined Antonius and 
Lepidus.-*^® Already on the 19th of August, Octavianus, with Q. 
Pedius as colleague, had been chosen consul ; the decree of amnesty 
of the preceding year had then been repealed ; and those who had 
occasioned the death of Caesar, together with their allies, had been 
condemned unheard to exile and the loss of their possessions.^^'' 
The army of Decimus Brutus had also by a decree of the senate 
been transferred to Caesar.-"® And so when Decimus, on hearing of 
his own condemnation and of the understanding '^^^ that had been 
brought about between Caesar on the one hand and Antonius and 
Lepidus on the other, proposed to march into Italy against the new 
enemy of himself and the republic, he was abandoned by Plancus,-'^" 
For Plancus found in the proposal of Decimus an excuse for com- 

"'' Paragraph 4, 6; App. iii. 91. 

»*» Fam. X. 33. 4; App. iii. 84. Antonius had seven legions and Lepidus seven. They also had a 
large body of cavalry and auxiliary troops. 
^'3 Ad Brut. i. 10. 4, 5; Fam. xi. 2$. 2. 
'^* Fam. xii. 10. 3; cf. App. iii. 85; cf. Dio xlvi. 51. 5. 
'^s Fam. xi. 14. 2; App. iii. 85. 
='* Dio xlvi. 53. 2. 

^'' Gardthausen, Augustus, I, i, pp. 125 f. and ii. i, pp. 47 f. 
='* Dio xlvi. 47. 3. 
='9 App. iii. 96; Dio xlvi. 51. 52. 
"'° Dio xlvi. 53. 2. 



DECIMUS' ADMINISTRATION OF CISALPINE GAUL I09 

pleting the arrangement between himself and Antonius that had 
been effected through the agency of Asinius PolHo, who a Httle while 
before had joined Antonius with two legions. ^'^^ 

Decimus, thus forsaken by his colleague, determined at first to 
flee through Cisalpine Gaul and along the Adriatic Sea to join 
Marcus Brutus in Macedonia. He had probably already crossed 
the Alps into northern Italy, when he learned that his route through 
his province to Aquileia was blocked by Caesar, who had returned 
from Rome with his troops and was in the neighborhod of Bononia. 
He then turned toward the north with the intention of crossing the 
Rhine near its source and marching through the passes of the Rae- 
tian Alps, and thence through the wild country of Raetia and 
Noricum. But the courage and patience, as well as the physical 
endurance, of his troops were exhausted. The recruits, many of 
whom had been levied in Cisalpine Gaul, deserted first and marched 
to join Caesar. Soon afterward the veterans also abandoned him 
and proceeded to Antonius. Brutus was left with his bodyguard 
of Gallic horse. Of these, he released those who desired it from the 
obligation of further continuing the flight. Having distributed the 
money in his possession, he pressed on toward the Rhine with only 
three hundred horsemen. There, since the river was difficult to 
cross, all save ten deserted him. Having adopted the Gallic garb 
and being acquainted with the Gallic language, he abandoned his 
circuitous route across the Alps and now was making directly for 
Aquileia, thinking that with his small retinue he would not attract 
attention. But he fell ino the hands of a band of mountain robbers 
and was bound and taken before the chieftain of their tribe, Camelus, 
to whom he had, as a provincial governor, shown many favors. 
Camelus greeted Decimus cordially, and pretended to be indignant 
that he had been bound, but straightway informed Antonius of his 
capture. Antonius sent some Gallic horsemen to fetch his head. 
There is a story of Valerius Maximus to the effect that, when 
Decimus and his party were discovered in hiding in the darkness, 
Terentius, a member of the little troop, pretended that he was Brutus 
and offered himself to be slain by the horsemen of Antonius, but, 
having been recognized by Furius, their leader, he failed even by 
his own death to save the life of his master.^'^^ In another passage 
Valerius states that, when Decimus was bidden to present his neck 

"" App. iii. 97. "^ Val. Max. iv. 7. 6. 



no DECIMUS JUNIUS BRUTUS ALBINUS 

to the sword, he was persistent in refusing, saying: "I will give it 
provided I may live." ^'^^ These tales were probably invented by 
some flatterer of Augustus to cast a shadow over the name and 
fame of Decimus Brutus. The report of Appian ^^* practically 
agrees with that of Livy, Velleius, and Orosius, and we get there- 
from no hint that Decimus died a coward. According to Appian, 
he was the next one of the liberatores after Trebonius to meet his 
fate, and paid the penalty for the assassination of the dictator within 
a year and a half of that event.-^^ His end must have come about 
the middle of September, 43. 

"3 Val. Max. ix. 13. 3; Seneca, Epist. 82. 11; Dio xlvi. 53. 3. 

"'■•App. iii. 98; Veil. ii. 64. i; Liv. Epit. 120; Orosius VI. 18. 7. Capenus Sequanus in Livy's 
account was probably one of Antonius' Gallic horsemen. 
»" App. iii. 98. 



INDEX OF PROPER NAMES ^ 

(Numbers refer to pages) 



Mam. Aemilius Lepidus (Cos. yy b. c), 

21. 

M. Aemilius Lepidus (Cos. 137 b. c), 

19. 
M. Aemilius Lepidus (triumvir), 38, 

45. 55. 59-62, 64-69, 80, 84, 90, 91, 

95-108. 
M. Aemilius Lepidus (revolutionary 

leader), 21, 24. 
Africa, 23, 35, 106, 108. 
Agedincum, 27, 28. 
Alba, 76. 
Alban Mount, 44. 
Albici, 31. 
Alesia, 28, 35. 
Alexander the Great, 40. 
Alexandria, 43. 
Allobroges, 22, 98, 99, 106. 
C. Amatius ( Pseudo-Mar ius), 71. 
Ancona, 85. 
T. Annius Milo, 51. 
Antiochus the Great, 18. 
Antitistius Labeo, Pacuvius, 52. 
Antium, 67. 
L. Antonius, 7s> 76, 82, 89, 99, 100, 

lOI. 

M. Antonius (triumvir), 17, 28, 34, 
36, 38, 46-50, 55, 56, 58, 59, 61-109. 

Appian, 37, 53, 55, 56, 60, 62, 72, 
74, 89, 90, 91, no. 

L. Appuleius Saturninus, 20, 24, 51. 

P. Apuleius, 89. 

Aquileia, 109. 

Argenteus, loi, 105. 

Ariminum, 76, 78, 82, 88. 

/vristotle, 40. 

Aries, 31. 

Arretium, 75. 

Arverni, 27. 

C. Asinius Pollio, 91, 92, 95, 97, 99, 
109. 

Atlantic Ocean, 19, 27. 

Attia, 36. 

T. Attius Labienus, 28. 

^uray, 25. 

L. Aurelius Cotta, 54. 

Aventine, 20. 

Bay of Quiberon, 25. 

P. Bagiennus, 91. 

Bellovaci, 35. 

' Less important names are omitted from this index. 



Bononia, 84, 86, 88, 93, 94, 109. 

Britain, 25, 27. 

Brittany, 24. 

Brundisium, 72. 74, 75. 

L. Caecilius Metellus, 30. 

Q. Caecilius Bassus, 63= 

M. Caelius Rufus, 28. 

L. Caesetius Flavus, 44, 47, 60. 

Calpurnia, 55. 

L. Calpurnius Piso, 69, 82. 

C. Calvisius Sabinus, 57, 

Camelus, 109. 

Campus Martius, 54. 

C. Caninius Rebilus, 43. 
Capitol, 42, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 69, 

76, 89. 
Capua, 75. 

D. Carfulenus, 76, 88. 
Cassius Dio Cocceianus, 32, 36, 42, 46, 

47, 48, 49, 53, 72, 90, 91, 94. loi. 
C. Cassius Longinus, 38, 49, 52, 54, 56, 

60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 66, 67, 68, 69, 71, 
83, 84, 87, 88. 

Catiline, see Sergius. 

Cevennes Mountains, 27. 

Cisalpine Gaul, 27, 36, 37, 38, 62, 71, 

72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 81, 

82, 83, 109. 
Claterna, 84, 86. 
Ti. Claudius Nero (Roman emperor), 

58. 
App. Claudius, 21. 
Clodia, 20 
P Clodius, 51. 
P. Coelius, 21. 
Commius, 35. 

L. Cornelius Cinna, 47, 59. 
L. Cornelius Sulla, 21, 43, 45, 65. 
P. Cornelius Dolabella, 17, 38, 49, 59, 

61, 72, 73, 78. 
P. Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus, 50, 53. 
P. Cornelius Scipio Nasica, 19, 50. 
Correus, 35. 

Cularo, 98, 99, 100, 105, 106. 
Curia Hostilia, 45. 
Curia Pompeia, 54, 57, 66. 
C. Curiatius, 19. 
Curio, see Scribonius. 
M'. Curius, 43. 
Deiotarus (king), 43. 



112 



DECIMUS JUNIUS BRUTUS ALBINUS 



Dertona, 95. 

L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, 30, 31, 32, 

33, 34- 
Durius, 98, 103, 106. 
Dyrrachium, 92. 
L. Egnatuleius, 76, 81. 
C. Epidius Marullus, 44, 47, 60. 
Eporedia, 99, 103, 104, 105, 106. 
Etruria, 30, 96. 
C. Fabius, 28. 
Q. Fabius Maximus, 43, 
Fasti (calendar), 46, 47, 94, 95. 
Forum, 46, 47, 58, 59, 60, 64, 89. 
Forum Cornelium, 82, 84, 86. 
Forum Gallorum, 88, 89, 90, 91, 93. 
Forum luli, 99, 100, loi. 
Forum Voconi, loi. 
M. Fulvius Flaccus, 20, 53. 
Furius, 109. 
Galba, see Sulpicius. 
Gallaeci, 19, 20. 
Gaul, 24, 27, 28, 29, 34, 35, 36, 37, 72, 

73 ; Gallia Cantata, 83 ; Further, 30. 
Glaucia, see Servilius. 
Graeceius, 92, 97. 
Helvius Cinna, 44, 47. 
A. Hirtius, 38, 48, 62, 63, 64, 66, 68, 

80, 82, 84, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 

92, 93, 94- 
Histri, 18. 
lapydes, 20. 
Iberians, 32. 

Ides of March, 41, 49, 54, 66, 77, 78. 
Ilerda, 32. 
Illyricum, 24. 
Inalpini, 73. 
Isara, 98, 99, 105, 106. 
Isocrates, 40. 
Italy, 24, 27, 29, 30, 31, 34, 36, 54, 71, 

8s, 98 104. 
C. lulius Caesar, 17, 22, 23-32, 34-63, 

65-72, 75, 78, 85, 103. 

C. lulius Caesar Octavianus (Augus- 
tus), 36, 37, 48, 58, 74, 75, 76, 77, 
78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 86, 88, 89, 90, 
91, 92, 93, 94, 96, 102, 103, 104, 
105, 107, 108, 109. 

L. lulius Caesar, 82, 84, 85. 

D. lunius Brutus (Cos. 77 b. c), 18, 
20, 21, S3. 

D. lunius Brutus Albinus, date of birth, 
1 7 ; ancestry, 1 7 if . ; adoptive father, 
23 ; takes service under Caesar, 24 ; 
naval commander in war with 
Veneti, 24 f. ; part in war with Ver- 
cingetorix, 27 f. ; marriage, 28 f. ; 
sides with Caesar in Civil War, 29 ; 
naval victories before Massilia, 31 ff. ; 
governor of Transalpine Gaul, 34 ; 



conquers the Bellovaci, 35 ; accom- 
panies Caesar to Rome, 36 ; one of 
Caesar's substitute heirs, 36 f. ; 
praetor, 37 ; appointed governor of 
Cisalpine Gaul and named consul 
designate, 38 ; character, and value 
of services to Caesar, 38 f. ; political 
faith, 39 ; conspires against Caesar, 
52 ff. ; gladiators of, 58 ; letter to 
Brutus and Cassius, 62 ff. ; leaves 
Rome for his province, 71 ; hopes 
aroused by his arrival there, 71, 

72 ; law of Antonius to deprive him 
of his province, 72 f. ; war with the 
Inalpini, 73 ; title of Imperator, 

73 f. ; at Mutina, 74 ; wishes sena- 
Uis consuHum authorizing him to hold 
his province, 77 ; edict, 78 f. ; pre- 
pares for defence of Mutina, 80 ; 
praised by senate, 80 f. ; measures 
for relief of, 82 ; Cicero's views con- 
cerning, 84 f. ; anxiety at Rome for, 
86 ; Hirtius and Caesar march to 
relief of, 86 ff. ; share in battle of 
Mutina, 90 ff. ; interview with 
Caesar, 93 ; learns of Pansa's death, 
93 ; pursues Antonius, 93 ff. ; plans, 
95 ; hints at ambition of Octavianus, 
96 ; inferiority of his army to that 
of Antonius, 97 ; learns the plans 
of Antonius, 97 ; seizes Pollentia, 
98 f . ; criticised at Rome, 102; de- 
lays departure from Italy, 103 ff. ; 
receives news of Lepidus' treachery, 
106; junction with Plancus, 106 f . ; 
condition of their forces, 107 f . ; de- 
serted by Plancus, 108 ; condemned 
at Rome to exile, 108; flight and 
death, 109 f. 

D. lunius Brutus Gallaecus ^Cos. 138 

B.C.), 18, 19, S2. 
L. lunius Brutus (first consul), 52, 53- 
M. lunius Brutus (Cos. 178), 18, 19. 
M. lunius Brutus (a founder of the 

civil law), 18. 
M. lunius Brutus (Q. Caepio), 36, 38. 

41, 52, S3, 54, 56, 57, 60, 61, 62, 63, 

64, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 83, 84, 87, 

92, 106^ 108. 
P. lunius Brutus (tribune), 18. 
P. lunius Brutus, 21. 
M. lunius Silanus, 90, 91, loi. 
Labienus, see Attius. 
Lake Regillus, 23. 
P. Licinius Crassus, 24, 25. 
C. Livius, 18. 

Livy, 19, 20, 35, 73, 94, no. 
Loire, 24, 25. 
Lucterius, 27. 



INDEX OF PROPER NAMES 



113 



Lupus, 74. 

Q. l-utatius Catulus, 40. 

Sp. Maelius, 50, 52. 

C. Maccius Plautus, 18. 

L. Marcius Censorinus, 57. 

L. Marcius Philippus, 81, 82. 

C. Marius 18, 21. 

Massilia, 30, 31, 34. 

Milo, see Annius. 

L. Munatius Plancus, 38, 69, 73, 74, 

79, 84, 90, 91, 95, 97,' 98-103, 105, 

106, 107, 108. 
T. Munatius Plancus, 85. 
Munda, 41. 
Mutina, 17, 73, 74, 80, 81, 83, 84, 85, 

87-96, 99, 102, 103. 
Myrtilus, 74. 
L. Nasidius, 32, 33. 
Narbo, 25, 27 

N-arbonese Gaul, 27, 73, 99. 
Nicolaus Damascenus, 46, 47, 48, 54, 

56, 60, 65, 66, 72. 
Octavius, see lulius. 
L. Opimius, 50. 
Orosius, Paulus, 23, 52, no. 
Pallantia, 19. 
Parisii, 28. 
Parma, 84. 
Q. Pedius, 37, 108. 
Perseus of Macedon, 19. 
L. Pinarius, 37. 
Plautus, see Maccius. 
Plutarch, 36, 42, 47, 48, 52, 55, 56, 60. 
Pollentia, 98, 99, 100, loi, 103. 
Cn. Pompeius Magnus, 29, 30, 32, 39. 
Sex. Pompeius, 60, 63. 
Sex. Pomponius, 18. 
T. Pomponius Atticus, 40, 52, 67. 
L. Pontius Aquila, 43, 85, 91, 92, 93, 

94. 
A. Postumius Albinus (Cos. 99), 23. 
A. Postumius Albinus (propraetor no 

B.C.), 23. 
A. Postumius Albinus (gov. of 

Sicily, 49 B. c), 23. 
A. Postumius Albinus Regillensis, 23. 
Sp. Postumius Albinus, 23. 
Pseudo-Marius, see Amatius. 
L. Quinctius Cincinnatus, 50. 
Ratoneau, 31. 
Ravenna, 75. 

Regium Lepidi, 84, 94, 95. 
Rhone, 99, loi. 
Rufinus, 43. 
Saguntum, 19. 

C. Sallustius Crispus, 21, 22. 
Sardinia, 106. 
Saturninus, see Appuleius. 



C. Scribonius Curio, 32. 

Scultenna, 87, 93. 

Second Triumvirate, 78. 

Segulius, Labeo, 104. 

Sempronia, 18, 21, 22, 24. 

C. Sempronius, 20. 

C. Sempronius Gracchus, 20, 50, 51, 52. 

Ti. Sempronius Gracchus, 50, 53. 

L. Sergius Catilina, 18, 21, 22, 24, 51. 

C. Servilius Ahala, 41, 50, 52. 

C. Servilius Glaucia, 20, 53. 

Sicily, 23, 32. 

Sicoris, 32. 

Spain, 19, 30, 31, 34, 36, 42, 108; 

Further, 19; Hither, 33. 
Spoletium, 82. 
Statiellenses, 97, 98. 
St. Gildas de Ruis, 25. 
C. Suetonius Tranquillus, 36, 37, 46, 

61. 
Sen Sulpicius Galba, 88, 91. 
Sen Sulpicius Rufus, 80, 82, 83, 85. 
Syria, 78. 

Tarquins, 23, 52, 53. 
Tauroentum, 32. 

Temple of Castor and Pollux, 75. 
Temple of Mars, 20. 
Temple of Ops, 83. 
Temple of Tellus, 68. 
Temple of Venus, 48. 
Ser. Terentius, 109. 
Q. Terentius CuUeo, loi. 
Tiberius, see Claudius. 
Tibur, 75, 76. 
1^. Trebellius, 98, 100. 
C. Trebonius, 31, 34, 38, 58, no. 
M. TulUus Cicero, passim. 
P. Umbrenus, 22. 
Vaccaei, 19. 

Vada Sabatia, 96, 98, 99, 100. 
Valerius Maximus, 19, 20, 109. 
Valeria, Paula, 28, 29, 82. 
C. Valerius Triarius, 29. 
L. Valerius Triarius, 29. 
P. Valerius Triarius, 29. 
Valentia, 19. 
L. Varius Cotyla, 84. 
C. Velleius Paterculus, 94, no. 
Veneti, 24, 25, 26. 
P. Ventidius Bassus, 85, 88, 90, 91, 

93, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, loi. 
Vercellae, 103. 
Vercingetorix, 27. 
Verdon, 105. 
C. Verres, 21. 
C. Vibius Pansa, 38, 80, 82, 84, £5, 

88, go, 93, 94. 
Viriathus, 19. 



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